
€lass j:;^ <\a V 

Book .-§,3^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



It MARGARET E. SANGSTER> Tl 




AMERICA-N TRACT SOCIETY J^ 
"NE'W YORKj 






I 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

APR 1 1903 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS ^o, XXc. No. 
COPY B. J 



COPYRIGHT, 1903 

BY 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 




^^^^^^ 



iforeworb^ 



EACH chapter of this book is 
a simple and friendly talk 
on some theme of homely 
interest, and the author^s aim has 
been to suggest something helpful 
in each as to life and conduct. 
We are all wayfarers, and our 
manners on the road have much 
to do with our happiness and 
usefulness. 

As a rule the pilgrim who walks 
lightly encumbered with luggage 
is least weary at the end of the day, 
and therefore the aim has been to 
inculcate care for the realities and 
5 



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to let the superfluities go. Most 
of the impedimenta with which we 
weight ourselves here will be for- 
gotten when we cross the river and 
enter the Father ^s house. Some 
things we shall carry over — our 
love to Christ and to each other, 
our share of the peace that pass- 
eth understanding, our desire to 
do his will and to bear his image — 
for it is written that in the Jeru- 
salem that is above, ^^His servants 
shall serve him.'^ 

It is the writer's hope that e very- 
word she sends forth may find a 
lodgment in some sympathetic 
heart, and that each reader may 
be her friend. As friends together 
we may talk of the common 
experiences which, when love 
touches them, wear hues of im- 
mortality. 

MARGARET E. SANGSTER. 



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IN summer time we hear every- 
where in nature the note of 
joy. Brightness and vivid- 
ness of color are seen in flower and 
leaf, forest aisles are sweet with 
bloom, gardens renewing their 
beauty, orchards dressed in em- 
broidery and fretwork of blossoms, 
birds on the wing, and song re- 
sounding. The outgoings of the 
morning and evening rej oice. The 
winds, soft as zephjo's or tumul- 
tuous with sudden tempest, still are 
7 






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attuned to the one exulting chord 
and Nature Ufts up her praise to 
the Creator whose hand ordains 
her seasons and guides them in 
their course. 

How is it in that other more 
intimate realm, where the spiritual 
life flourishes? Here, too, yet not 
only now, there should be glad- 
ness. The joy of the Lord is your 
strength, ye who trust in the Lord 
may declare; the firmament for 
you is starred with lights that no 
darkness can dim, and — 

"The voice that rolls the stars along 
Speaks all the promises." 

In our busy days and hurrying 
tasks some of us forget that we 
may be busy and still blessed; toil 
strenuously, and yet wear singing 
robes. Christians of a former and 
8 




XTbe 5oi?ful Xffe. 



more introspective period than 
ours were wont to talk much of 
assurance, to long for and prize it, 
to lament its lack in their con- 
sciousness, and to cry out for it 
earnestly in their hours of prayer. 
In an age when we are losing the 
deep sense of the fear of God from 
individual and family life we hear 
little about assurance, and there 
is some danger that Christians are 
ceasing to cherish what is in truth 
their very highest privilege and 
their chief distinction. Assurance 
of our right to claim kinship with 
the Elder Brother, a sweet, full, 
never-ceasing awareness that we 
belong to the Divine Father, is 
the inheritance by right of all who 
are Christ ^s and who live by faith 
in the Son of God. No one can 
9 




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have this confidence of acceptance, 
this security of communion, this 
f eehng of the child at home in the 
Father's house, and not know often 
the thrill of an ecstasy surpassing 
earthly pleasure; the steadfast joy 
of a soul at peace beyond all per- 
turbation and strife. 

We look for a heaven of joy, 
dear friends, a heaven where there 
shall be no terror of a parting from 
our loved ones, no grief, no sin. 
There the redeemed shall walk in 
white; there the anthem is forever 
rising, the harp notes forever ring. 
Angels and saints, the vast kin- 
dreds of the cycles past and to 
come, the innumerable company 
of the redeemed, shall dwell there 
in a bliss that shall never be 
broken. 

10 



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"O Paradise, O Paradise, 

Who doth not crave for rest. 
Who would not seek the happy land 

Where they that loved are blest. 
Where loyal hearts and true, 

Stand ever in the light, 
All rapture, through and through, 

In God's most holy sight? " 

But we need not wait for heaven 
till we drop the garments of our 
flesh. To the disciple heaven may 
begin, and may continue all the 
way along, for has not Jesus said, 
^^I am the way/' and is there any 
heaven comparable to abiding 
with Jesus? What matter a few 
passing trials, a few rough stones, 
a few tears and struggles, if we are 
faring onward with Christ and 
every step is homeward, and home 
is spreading its tabernacle over us 
by night and providing our re- 
freshment by day. 



m. 



When I met my friend, who had 
lately heard of the death of a dear 
daughter in a distant land, a loss 
unexpected, and leaving her deso- 
late, her look was not cast down, 
nor was her countenance sad. 
There was in her expression some- 
thing chastened, something aloof 
from the common experience, 
something elevated, as if she had 
drawn very close to the home 
within the veil. A rare illumina- 
tion from the tranquil acceptance 
of God's will and the unshaken 
repose in his goodness which 
belongs to those who never doubt 
nor protest nor gird against the 
arbitrament of the Father, was 
in her face. ^Tan I be other 
than joyful,'^ she said, ^^in the 
joy that God gives me when he 

12 




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



stoops to take my dearest 
himself? ^^ 

This joy may be ours, too, in 
times of illness and languor. I 
have no sympathy with that cult 
which denies that illness and lan- 
guor are possible, which illogically 
tells us that matter has no exist- 
ence, and which denies the discip- 
linary process of pain. Not that 
our Lord cannot heal, and does not 
heal, our sicknesses every day. 
^^The healing of his seamless dress 
is by our beds of pain'^ always. 
He is always coming to us when 
we need him with the gentle com- 
mand, ^^ Daughter, son, I say unto 
thee, arise !'^ But he has many a 
method for refining and purifying 
his own, and every good physician, 
and every adequate remedy, and 
13 




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XCbe 5oBful Xtfe* 



every hospital room and surgical 
tool and modern appliance, every 
ingenuity of skill and science, each 
and all are his; ours to use as he 
permits, with gratitude to him that 
he gives what he gives. So we 
may bear the little prick and the 
sharp pang, the fever heat, the 
racking torment, the exhaustion 
and the distress, when he sends 
any of them, with something more 
than mere passivity, with real joy. 
And which of us has not known 
invalids, shut in from the world 
and ensphered in a grace that the 
world can no more take away than 
it can bestow? 

The Christian's joy is consistent 

with very narrow circumstances. 

I have often heard people exclaim 

against the hampering of environ- 

14 



Ube Joyful Xife* 



merit. Others can go here or 
there. Others can give large sums 
to missions or to charity. Others 
can have the satisfactions that 
accrue from wide advantages, from 
generous hving, from contact with 
the best in art and hterature. One 
would fancy to hear these victims 
of discontent that there were no 
museums, no galleries, no libra- 
ries; that only the rich could enjoy 
these treasure stores of intellect 
and achievement, whereas they 
are by no means the monopoly of 
wealth. The poorest, who desire, 
may enjoy much that has been 
gathered and catalogued and con- 
served, and placed under proper 
care and guardianship for the 
education of the many, not for 
the gratification of the few. And 
15 



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nature is as lavish of her displays; 
her open fields and lofty spaces and 
acreage of mountain and plain can 
never be absolutely owned by any 
one man, however many times 
a millionaire. Nature gives the 
poorest a right of way over most 
of her domains. 

'^When daisies go, shall winter- time. 
Silver the simple grass with rime 
Autumnal frost enchant the pool, 
And make the cart ruts beautiful. 
To make this earth our hermitage, 
A cheerful and a changeful page, 
God's bright and intricate device 
Of days and seasons doth suffice." 

Ah ! friends, it is because we are 
paupers in heart, a very different 
thing from being humble in spirit, 
that we are bankrupt of joy. If 
some of those who rebel at poverty 
could penetrate the shams that 
16 




Ube Jopful %itc. 

sometimes are the portion of 
wealth, their fooHsh envy would 
be scattered like a morning mist 
in the sun. 

Says Dr. Matheson pithily, " We 
think of heaven as needing the 
photographs of earth to make 
earthly memory! The Mount of 
God does not need to be made 
after the pattern of the human; 
the human has already been pat- 
terned after the Mount of God.'^ 
Heaven may be our portion before- 
hand, if our love is there; if our 
thoughts are there ; if our conversa- 
tion, meaning by the word, the 
whole conduct of our affairs, is 
already there. What folly to 
weigh trifles of wealth or poverty 
in the scale, as affecting our joy. 
Our convenience, our comfort, may 
17 




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depend on these, but not that 
deeper, more enduring thing, our 
humor and mood, our joy. For is 
not that Christ^s joy? "Who, for 
the joy that was set before him 
endured the cross, despising the 
shame !'^ 

It is seldom the Master's will 
that we carry no cross. Hidden 
from the sight of those around us, 
our cross may be revealed only to 
the eyes of our Saviour. The hid- 
den cross is often the heaviest. 
But we too, sharing his cross, may 
endure it, whether or not the 
world know our secret, as seeing 
Him who is to them invisible, and 
a tide of joy, present as well as 
prospective, may cover the waste 
places of our lives. 

Yet another phase of this sub- 
18 



ject appeals to us on the practical 
side. Young people should never 
be hindered in the Christian race 
nor be kept away from the King- 
dom by the idea that Christianity 
means gloom. Undoubtedly there 
are very good people whose relig- 
ion never seems to brighten their 
everyday lives. They give an 
impression of the shadow on the 
feast; they behave as if gaiety 
were a crime. Their homes are not 
cheerful places, and their piety, 
though real, is austere. These 
believers are mistaken if they 
suppose that they are imitating 
Christ by their sorrowful demeanor. 
Our Lord when on earth was the 
centre of a cheerful, curiously 
interested and eager group of 
earnest men, and crowds of com- 
19 




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mon folk, with their laughter 
unchecked, their arguments un- 
hushed, their tasks going on as 
usual, gathered whenever he ap- 
peared. The very children ran 
to clutch his garments, to take his 
hand. A man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief, he was yet 
no unwelcome guest at the feast 
and no bar upon any joy. We do 
him a great wrong when we 
frighten the children from him by 
our crossness or our curtness. 
Gravity and soberness at appro- 
priate times are not inconsistent 
with true cheerfulness. 

I often wish when I see the 
young hesitating on the threshold 
of the Kingdom that they might 
realize how much they lose by 
staying away. Not a friend below 
20 






Ube Joptul %ifc. 



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can offer so much of enduring 
joy as is freely offered by this 
Friend with the pierced hands 
and the head once crowned with 
thorns. The sweetness of his call 
will be in your soul, dear child of 
time, to all eternity. You can 
never know immortal joy if you 
do not heed it. ^ ^ Come unto Me/^ 
he says, ^^and I will give you rest.^^ 
Yes, Lord Jesus, we will come, 
and receive in this life, and in the 
life unending, peace, rest and joy, 
for at thy right hand there are 
pleasures for evermore. 

"I am oft alone, dear Saviour, 
Yet I know not lonely days ; 
Thou art more than home or kindred 

Unto thee I lift my praise. 
And by many a desert fountain 
I can Ebenezer raise. 
21 



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WE are all agreed that the 
early impressions are 
the most enduring and 
that lasting shape and trend 
are often given to human lives 
while children are yet in infancy. 
A mother's prayers, a father^s 
faith, the Christian atmosphere 
of the home, the place the Bible 
holds in the family, are vital in- 
fluences in childish training, and 
preempt the little one for heaven 
before the evil of the world has 
23 



Zbc JOBfttl Xite* 



had time to occupy the heart's 
soil. It is the privilege of Chris- 
tian parents to claim covenant 
rights for their offspring, and to 
expect that they will early enter 
into their birthright as children 
of God. Alas! too often we are 
careless and inconsiderate, and 
undo by our example what we 
are painstakingly doing by our 
precept. The influences which 
are moulding our precious sons and 
daughters are often corrupt, or 
sordid; or ignoble, because we 
are contended to live a half-con- 
secrated life, to keep back from 
God what belongs to him, and 
to realize only fragmentary bless- 
edness, instead of the rounded 
whole of peace and joy which 
the Lord bestows on those who 
24 



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flDouI&ing tntLncnccs. 



consciously abide in him, and in 
whom he dwells. 

Take, for instance, the common 
mistake of the mother who frets 
at her children because she 
is nervous, irritable and much 
worn in temper and health. She 
tells them to speak gently, to be 
patient, to move quietly, to be 
forgiving and kind. This is good 
counsel. But she has worries of 
one sort or another. Money 
comes in slowly ; perhaps she fore- 
casts the future and fears the 
rainy day. She is aware of less- 
ened strength, or some malady 
menaces her comfort. Headaches 
creep stealthily on her busy days, 
like foes from an ambush. Before 
she is aware of it her tones are 
sharp and her frown is shrewish; 
25 



s^^^^ ^ss^^ ^^^^^ 




she scolds and nags; trifles are 
exalted into affairs of importance ; 
she punishes in anger; she does 
not accept excuses or explana- 
tions, and the home is a place 
to flee from. All the preaching 
that this poor mother can find 
time for is utterly abortive, ruined 
by her blundering and sinful prac- 
tice. She is moulding, not gentle, 
self-controlled and considerate 
young folk of exquisite manners 
and unfailing courtesy, but hasty, 
brusque and easily exasperated 
people, who will imitate her ways 
until the wrong habit finally be- 
comes a second nature. 

I fancy the dear Lord whose 
compassions fail not, bending in 
divine sorrow over such an one, 
and seeking to restore her soul, 

26 



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nDoulbfuG irnfluences* 



to lead her again into the paths 
of righteousness for his name^s 
sake. And if she will but heed 
the way of peace is easy to find. 
If but at each morning's dawning 
she will turn to him first, make 
a definite surrender of the day to 
him, ask him to enter the temple 
of her body, and to cleanse her 
soul, so that it may be his fit habi- 
tation; if, whenever the impulse 
to sin comes upon her, she will 
swiftly and silently pray for help, 
and refrain from speech until she 
feels the help given, her whole life 
will be changed, uplifted and 
brightened. We get too far from 
our Lord. We are like children 
wandering in the bush, going 
around in circles — the home near 
with its light and warmth, but 
27 




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we, confused and stumbling, turn- 
ing from it. Nervous and worried 
women can nowhere find a com- 
plete cure except at the feet of 
Jesus; but he is ever close at hand, 
and can relieve them, if they will but 
call to him, the Healer of the soul. 
Do we appreciate at its true 
worth the value of calmness in 
our life with the children? 

'^Calm me, my God, and keep me calm. 
Soft resting on thy breast," 

should be the mother's unceasing 
prayer. 

Nothing is sadder than to ob- 
serve an anxious look on a little 
face, a look of dread and depre- 
cation, where confidence should 
be the rule. Penitence is not 
dread. The child that grows up 
in a home sweet with that piety 

28 




^^^^^^^^^ 



flDoul&fng f nfluences^ 



which exorcises the evil demons 
of worry and ill-temper will be 
sorry when he does wrong, and 
will hasten to confess it and, if 
need be, will accept the just pen- 
alty, and thus take the first step 
toward true repentance and sav- 
ing trust in the cleansing blood 
of the Redeemer. The moulding 
influence of vital trust in Jesus, 
on the part of parents, cannot 
but prove of ceaseless and benefi- 
cent effect upon the children of 
the household, who should also 
be children of the heavenly King. 
The Bible has a good deal to 
say about our walk and conver- 
sation. It reminds us of the 
responsibility we have for our 
words, especially for our idle words. 
Now, in one phase of our daily 
29 



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life, we all need the suggestion 
that we should guard our ordinary 
talk. Many a time we thought- 
lessly comment on the actions of 
our acquaintances, criticize them, 
and attribute to them motives 
of which they may never have 
dreamed. We do not indulge 
in anything so gross as slander, 
and we hold ourselves above 
malicious gossip, and yet, in 
a multitude of needless ways, 
we violate the law of kindness 
which should be on our lips. 
Those who listen to us, whether 
they are young or old, either 
suffer some diminution of the 
high ideal which they should as- 
sociate with the talk of Christians, 
or have a protest, perhaps un- 
spoken, in their minds, against 
30 



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/Dottlbing f nfluences* 



our faults, or, still worse, fall into 
the same error themselves. A 
mother is sitting in a group of 
friends, her own daughter one of 
the number. A lady is mentioned 
as having formed one of the con- 
tingent at a summer boarding- 
house. ^^I was disgusted,'' says 
the matron, ^^with Mrs. C. She 
was constantly maneuvering and 
managing to secure the best seats 
for herself and her party when 
we were driving; she tried to 
out-shine the rest; her boasting 
grew very tedious and monoto- 
nous.'' Presently the conversa- 
tion veers toward another quarter 
and Mrs. C. is forgotten. But 
if a young girl sitting by has noted 
the acerbity of reprehension, the 
sharp dislike latent in the mother's 
31 



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remarks, she will have imbibed 
the idea that such comment is 
permissible among gentlewomen. 
If, further, in the course of events, 
after a day or two, she is present 
when her mother receives the 
offending Mrs. C. most graciously, 
as if she were a much-prized 
friend, the girl will have been 
propelled down an easy descent 
into the valley of social insincerity. 
A false compliment as surely aids 
in moulding a susceptible nature 
into deceit as does any other bit 
of mendacity. 

These are by way of illustrating 
the alien and evil influences which 
may deform character. We may 
multiply them at pleasure. But, 
equally potential, and equally 
within our reach, are those holier, 
32 



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^^^^^^^^^^ 



/»oul5fn9 Influences* 



happier influences which elevate, 
expand and beautify the human 
soul. 

First and most important and 
within reach of every disciple is 
the presence in hearts and homes 
of the Holy Spirit. Some of us 
speak of the vital spirit of God as 
if we were dealing with an essence 
or an abstraction, not as if we 
were alluding reverently to a per- 
son. Asking for the Comforter, 
as we should, accepting the Spirit 
by faith, and daily seeking to be 
filled with him, we shall gain a 
tremendous amount of power for 
good over all whom we meet. 
Not ourselves, feeble, inert, erring, 
apt to make mistakes, but God 
himself working in us, speaking 
through us, should be the lever 
33 




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brought to bear upon a sinful 
world. 

Every Christian is of necessity 
a missionary. Not always to a 
remote frontier or to a distant 
land; not even always to a 
thronged tenement neighborhood, 
nor to a factory town where temp- 
tations abound, often only to our 
own kith and kin, our classmates, 
our friends, our homes, do we 
carry the blessed gospel message. 

When anyone communes con- 
stantly with the Saviour, is fre- 
quently in prayer, and lives first 
for the kingdom of heaven, and 
later for earthly gain and labor, 
there will be around him an at- 
mosphere of fragrance and peace 
which will attract those with whom 
he dwells to the blessed Christ. 
34 



/B>oul&ing IFnfluences* 



A Christian lad in a shop, a Chris- 
tian merchant in the counting 
room, a Christian woman in so- 
ciety will, if wholly consecrated, 
draw those in his or her company to 
Immanuel, and the place of his or 
her service will belmmanueFs land. 

To this blessedness may we 
not attain, who love our Master, 
and are fain to set our feet in the 
footprints he has left us on the 
road through this place of our 
pilgrimage, to our unending home? 

If we honestly hope to train 
the coming generation into robust 
discipleship, we must not neglect 
to form in them the habit, not 
merely of Bible reading, but of 
serious Bible study. There is 
such a thing as using the Bible 
as a fetich. They do this who 
35 




y_. 



hastily peruse a few verses 
morning or snatch a sleepy glance 
at a psalm or a text at night, 
opening the Book anywhere, and 
reading without thought. One's 
morning watch, never intermitted 
in health, should include prayer 
and regular reading, according 
to a plan. The child who is 
taught from the beginning to read 
the whole Bible will be furnished, 
when he reaches manhood, with 
a complete armory of weapons 
with which to resist the wiles of 
the devil. 

I know mothers who never fail 
to secure a daily half hour for 
Bible study with their growing 
children. I think of a circle of 
young people who daily gather 
around a loved sister, and read 
36 




^^^^^s^^^^ 



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/IDoulbing IFnfluences^ 



each day four or five chapters of 
the Word; who are famihar with 
its highways and byways through 
consecutive morning study. Ques- 
tions are asked, and attention 
is enhsted, but the half hour is 
never regarded as a weariness; 
for, in that home, it is the coro- 
nation of the happy day^ 

Sometimes, dear friends, we dis- 
cover in our own spiritual lives a 
strange deadness and formality. 
We respond to no tender touch 
in the world's bustle, bidding us 
come apart and rest awhile. We 
almost question the genuineness 
of our conversion. Can branches 
so leafless and barren belong to 
the living vine? Yet let us never 
question the keeping love of the 
dear Lord, who is able to guard 
37 




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Xtbe 5ot>f ul Xif e* 



us from stumbling; and to present 
us in his presence, without blemish 
with exceeding joy. If we lack 
the consolation of assurance it is 
through our lack of faith, and 
faith is the Master's gift. Let 
us use the little faith we have and 
cling not to that, nor to any 
crutch of our own, but to the 
promises and to the eternal truth 
and love of God in Christ. Let 
us simply go on, doing our duty 
as best we may, and we shall find 
soon or late that 

*' It is better to walk with God in the dark 
Than to walk alone in the light/' 

In some radiant moment the 
mists shall drift aside, and we 
shall behold the clear shining of 
his face. But even if light be 
never vouchsafed, and we lack 
38 



I 




/IDottlt>fng Ifnfluences* 



the sweet sense of Christ's near- 
ness and of his approval, we must 
still endeavor to walk with him. 
The world is to be won for 
Christ by hand-to-hand conflict. 
Individual faithfulness, individual 
testimony, individual influence, 
must carry the conquests of the 
cross over the globe. The spirit 
of the disciple must be free from 
self-seeking, and Christ must reign 
in those who serve him. Then 
they cannot but everywhere and 
always show forth his amazing 
love and grace. 

" When I survey the wondrous cross 
On which the Prince of glory died, 

My richest gain I count but loss 

And pour contempt on all my pride/* 

One more persuasive and benign 

influence we may mention, and 
39 



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that is the power of Christian 
friendship. When we who love 
Christ meet; why should we be 
so shy of speaking his praise? In 
our letters can we not slip in some 
heart word about the King, or 
send a poem or a leaflet to be a 
reminder of his goodness? Con- 
tempt on our pride? Yes, but 
loyalty for and pride in our 
Beloved; who is the chief among 
ten thousand; and altogether 
lovely. Well may we crown him 
Lord of all — Lord of our homeS; 
our ambitionS; our friendships and 
our whole lives. 
And 

" His name like sweet perfume shall rise 
With every morning sacrifice. 
To him shall endless prayers be made. " 






40 



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XTbe Christian 
Moman's ©pportunit^ 



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WOMAN, in Christian 
lands and in modern 
timeS; has always been 
influential, and her voice, albeit 
not lifted in the market place, has 
been potential in the shaping of 
opinion and the formation of ideals 
in the home and in society. But 
as never before, in the twentieth 
century woman finds herself dow- 
ered with responsibility and lis- 
tened to with attention; gates 
once closed swing open for her 
entrance, and there are few avoca- 

41 



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>^' <^-5 






M 



trbe Joyful Xife. 

tions which forbid her approach. 
Indeed, her only Hmitations at 
present are those which belong 
to the peculiarly delicate though 
elastic organization which the 
Creator gave her when he set 
her apart as the mother of the 
race. Certain rough work of the 
soldier and the sailor she may 
never do. Some of the perilous 
labors of the builder and the en- 
gineer will never fall into her 
hands. But she is not debarred 
from any pursuits, except those 
for which she is evidently physi- 
cally unfitted and which would 
manifestly interfere with her 
guardianship of the home and her 
care of little children. 

It would seem, dear friends, as 
if the economic changes which 
42 




^M£ 



^^'v:^'^^?^?-^^^^^ 







Moman's ©pportunfts* 

have pushed so many women 
out of the seclusion of the house- 
hold and into the shop, the count- 
ing-room and the several profes- 
sions, have given Christ^s hand- 
maidens very marked advantages 
in carrying on their work for him. 
The invention of typewriting 
alone, and its general introduction 
into business houses, has brought 
numbers of young girls into cleri- 
cal situations — a thousand aman- 
uenses and secretaries for every 
one of forty years ago — and as 
they sit at their machines, or 
take dictation, these girls have 
a chance, by fidelity, by womanly 
modesty, by happy unconscious- 
ness of self, to show whether or 
not they belong to the Lord Jesus. 
They need not preach, they need 
43 



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not say a word, they need only 
live as Christ's followers in the 
midst of their busy days, and 
the sweet impression of their con- 
duct will not fail of its effect. 

Recently I heard a man^ not a 
Christian, speak in terms of pro- 
found respect of a young woman 
who was employed as stenographer 
by a legal firm. ^^She bears her- 
self above anything small or self- 
seeking; she does more than her 
duty; no one can help seeing that 
the little silver cross she wears 
means that she is a devoted Chris- 
tian.'' Every King's Daughter, 
wearing the beautiful little badge 
of the order, may thus silently 
be a witness-bearer in her business 
life, and many a girl who carries 
no visible emblem may show in 
44 





r^^^ 



Moman's ©pportuniti?^ 



her quiet manner, her thorough- 
ness, gentleness and fineness of 
character, that she draws strength 
from above. The business woman 
may well heed the divine in- 
junction to let the light shine 
brightly. 

A little candle, Lord, for thee ! 

So let it burn where shadows meet. 
While daily in humility 

I bend me at thy pierced feet. 

The girl behind the counter, the 
girl in the nurse's uniform, the 
girl who makes bonnets and 
dresses, the girl whose place is 
in the factory, the girl who does 
housework and helps the home 
life by her services, each in her 
place has an opportunity to work 
for Jesus. Sometimes it will lead 
her to sweet and tactful speech. 
45 



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iMdviM\llIj^. , ^^ ^ , _ 



TLbc Joyful %itc. 



Sometimes to a deed of benefi- 
cence, occasionally to indignant 
resentment, if there be profanity 
or sneers in her presence. What- 
ever the need, the One whose 
grace is equal to her day will help 
the Christian woman to testify 
for her Lord in the place where 
he has put her. That place may 
be obscure, but it is never unim- 
portant, and she will ennoble her 
life as she is faithful in her daily 
duties. In God^s sight there is 
neither small nor great, but all 
work is equally honorable in his 
accounting. Away back in Old 
Testament days it was a little 
captive daughter of Israel in the 
house of the Syrian general who 
did the Lord's will, and she has 
remained an example for women 
46 



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XKIloman's ©pportunfts* 



as a type of loyal faithfulness 
through the long ages. 

In society, too, the Christian 
woman has a splendid opportunity 
to show her colors. Not all homes 
of wealth and fashion are ante- 
rooms of Vanity Fair. There are 
thousands of refined and beautiful 
homes where there is consecration 
to God and the clear shining of 
pure religion and undefiled. And 
yet, along with wealth and luxury, 
march temptations to sloth, to 
indifference and to sinful apathy. 
As once to the cultured Greeks 
the cross was foolishness, so now, 
in the eyes of many well-mannered, 
well-trained Americans, the whole 
realm of religious thought and 
principle seems an enchanted 
ground of mere sentimentality — 
47 






:< c^f ^•'' 



Xtbe Jostul %itc. 



^4ncomes from dreamland^' — and 
they look with pity on those whose 
hopes and aspirations are set upon 
a better world. The prevalent 
license of speech, the continual 
breaking of the Sabbath, the in- 
crease of social drinking customs, 
and the neglect of the Bible and 
of God's house, the omission of 
family worship and of grace at the 
table, too, show that in the polite 
domain of the wealthier classes 
Christ's banner is not honored. 
There is no mission to poverty 



or sorrow, to the tenements or the 
zenanas, which is more necessary 
or more relentless in its obligation 
than that mission to the palace and 
the mansion which invites the 
Christian woman. If she will but 
be consistent, go from her chamber 
48 





TKaoman's ©pportuniti?* 



in the morning with the sweetness 
of the Saviour's love upon her 
hps after her watch with him, 
refrain from doubtful pleasures, 
illustrate the beauty of holiness 
in her walk and conversation, as 
an ^^ elect lady/' she may win 
others to her Lord, and diffuse 
around her an atmosphere of 
piety fragrant as the lilies of 
peace. Her best opportunities 
will come to her as constantly 
she lives in Christ and Christ lives 
in her. 

Take the familiar example of the 
woman's college, where the daugh- 
ters of various households are 
brought together from every State 
in the Union. Here we find a girl, 
who represents a home vital with 
love to Jesus, side by side with 
49 



Ube 5o^fuI %ltc. 



another who is charming, graceful, 
ambitions, yet either altogether 
opposed to religion, or utterly apa- 
thetic to its claims. The girl who 
is pledged to service, by church 
membership, or by her hearths 
allegiance to Jesus, can and does 
impress her companions so that 
they cannot continue in indiffer- 
ence. Some of them at least will 
be forced to look at themselves in 
the light of the Christianas candle, 
and to decide whether they will 
be the world's or the Lord's. 
Others will, half unconsciously, 
receive some blessing from the 
young disciple, and her influence 
will reach further than she im- 
agines, for the benefit of her 
college and of those to whom, 
by-and-by, its graduates will go. 
50 






r^ 



Moman's ©pportunfti?* 



^^^^^^^ 



A wonderful missionary oppor- 
tunity is afforded the Christian 
woman in our times. She may 
teach, she may be an evangehst, 
she may go as a physician, or as 
the wife of a minister, but she will 
find on many a dark shore the 
women and the children waiting 
to be taught of Christ. Mrs. 
Howard Taylor, of the China In- 
land Mission, was speaking at 
Northfield this last summer of the 
duty laid upon Christian women 
to illuminate the gloom of heathen- 
dom. She told of the unspeak- 
able wretchedness of China, a 
wretchedness so fathomless that 
it is no uncommon thing for little 
girls of nine and ten years of age 
to commit suicide to escape from 
it. Jesus said, ^^ Suffer the little 
51 




Ube Joyful %itc. 



children to come unto me and 
forbid them not.'' ''If/' said 
Mrs. Taylor, ^^you in America 
stand by and take no share in 
helping missionary effort, you are 
forbidding the children for whom 
Christ died to come unto him. 
By our personal sacrifices, by our 
gifts, by our prayers, we who love 
the Lord may, in these marvelous 
years of the open door, bring the 
lost into his blessed fold." 

Apart from the opportunity of 
the Christian woman as an indi- 
vidual, there is at present the 
multiplication of efficient organi- 
zations and societies through 
which she may send her contri- 
butions and by which she may 
help humanity and glorify her 
Saviour. In the Young Women's 
52 



v^r%^ 



Moman'8 ©pportunitp^ 



Christian Associations which are 
now found in strong co-operative 
work in our various cities and 
towns, in Europe, in Asia, in the 
islands of the sea, there is a cordon 
of hearts beating as one, and re- 
sponsive to orders from on high. 
She who cannot personally visit 
factories and shops, or personally 
touch undergraduates in college, 
or personally comfort and elevate 
the struggling masses of discour- 
aged women, may give her name, 
her contribution and her sym- 
pathy to the association nearest 
her, and work by its means. 
Settlement work also makes its 
appeals, and commends Christ 
to the lowly. The missionary so- 
ciety, the prayer circle, the tem- 
perance band, all afford the oppor- 
53 



^^^M 


^^M 



tunity of organization to the 
woman who seeks to be widely 
helpful. 

We must not overlook, because 
it is so conspicuous, the ever bright 
and ever beautiful opportunity of 
the Christian woman in her home— 
the mother who has her little ones 
from the earliest hours, who can 
lead them to Christ, pre-empting 
the soil for him before the evil 
one can sow tares; the wife 
who may so strongly influence 
her husband for good, bringing 
him, if unbelieving, to the Lord 
she loves ; the daughter, the sister, 
the friend within the gates, each 
has her vineyard plot to keep and 
tend. 

The mother will most surely 
win her children to the sweet 
54 



y^^r%t 



Moman's ©pportunitp* 



succession of service which should 
distinguish the family, from gen- 
eration to generation — one, an- 
other, and another, living for God — 
by keeping her spiritual life on a 
high plane. The fire never re- 
plenished dies out. The Christian 
seldom attending the sanctuary, 
seldom reading the Word, infre- 
quent in prayer, is not in touch 
with heaven. 

When we are tranquilized by 
communion with God, we shall 
not easily lose our tempers nor 
often be overcome by the low 
mood, nor commit sins which lead 
others astray. Infelicities of 
speech and conduct, bringing 
shame upon the Christian name, 
are the result of a barren spiritual 
life, of little prayer and of absence 
55 






and distance from the Master. 
The mother, sister, daughter, 
friend, who shows forth Christ, 
must abide with Christ. 

Not far from thee, my Saviour, 
But near thee would I dwell. 

Would open wide my door to thee 
And all thy goodness tell, 

Because I see thee face to face, 
And ever know thee well. 

Kemote from thee is coldness. 
And weakness in the strife; 

Remote from thee is weariness. 
And doubts and fears are rife. 

But when I hold thy hand I have 
The blessed heavenly life 

Are there those who have spent 
their substance for this world^s 
rewards, are aware that their 
portion thus far has been dis- 
appointment and pain? Are 
there some who have heard again 
and again the voice of Jesus call- 
56 






Moman'5 ©pportunfti?* 



ing, calling, yet have not obeyed 
it, and have refused to come 
unto him? For women, Christ- 
loved, Christ-honored, Christ- 
elevated, there is Uttle excuse, if 
they turn a deaf ear to his invi- 
tations. 

Let none of us be despondent be- 
cause we do not see any great 
results of our teaching, or our 
efforts. It is not given to us to 
always know what we have ac- 
complished. It should be enough 
for us that Christ knows. Per- 
haps we are only setting in motion 
a train of circumstances which 
shall never stop their beneficence 
till their last ripples break on the 
shores of the crystal sea. 



57 




AUGUST has the preeminent 
distinction of being the vaca- 
tion month in the calendar. 
Not that other months of the 
summer and the early autumn are 
not equally serviceable for holiday 



purposes 



August there 



occurs a lull in business, a mid- 
season pause when people can be 
laid off without disadvantage. Be- 
sides, in the increase of material 
comforts and luxuries, we have 
gradually learned that change and 
recreation are beneficial to health 
59 



Ube Jo^fvd OLife. 

so that city men and their f amihes 
are more and more going to the 
country at the time when the 
former can best be spared from 
the grind of daily toil. 

Whenever the summer recess 
can be so arranged that the whole 
household may share its pleas- 
ures in common, there is a mani- 
fest improvement over the plan 
of sending the wife and children 
away, while the bread-winner toils 
on alone at home. Sometimes, 
where there are delicate babies to 
be considered, or invalids to be 
sent to a breezy, rural atmosphere, 
the husband must, with the self- 
denial for which American hus- 
bands are conspicuous, give up 
the society of his family and eat 
solitary meals, and sleep in a 
60 




xrbe Dacatfon /iDontb* 



lonely house during most of the 
hot season. Few men of ordinary 
means can afford a prolonged 
vacation; they must be content 
with a fortnight or, at most, a 
month. If they have resolved to 
endure a summer of silence and 
makeshifts at home, they say 
nothing about it, and there is 
seldom so much as a note of com- 
plaint even in their letters to the 
absent ones. The wife hears 
nothing of the stuffy house, the 
dinners at restaurants, the sudden 
illness in the night when there 
was need of ministration, but the 
battle was grimly fought out un- 
aided; nothing of the clanging 
car bells, the blasting of rocks, 
and the never-hushed roar of the 
town. Her good man is solicitous 
61 




>rf 



1^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



XTbe 5oi?f ttl %itc. 

that she shall enjoy herself, and 
that the children shall have their 
fill of fresh air and fun. He keeps 
his sufferings in the background. 

Wise and far-seeing is the 
matron who, in her vacation 
planning, so orders affairs that 
somebody stays at home with 
those who cannot get away. A 
shorter vacation taken by all 
is better than a longer one from 
which some toiler is excluded. A 
great deal of comfort and cool- 
ness can be secured in a city home, 
if the wife or the mother is there 
to watch the ventilation, and to 
prepare tempting meals for jaded 
appetites. 

Waiving this phase of the sub- 
ject, however, there arises another 
and very practical question for 
62 



#( 



Ube Vacation /IDontb* 



US; and that is, how are we to get 
the most good from a vacation? 
What should it do for us, and how 
should it tell upon the days which 
are to follow when it has passed 
away? 

To be really worth having, a 
vacation should be complete. We 
are a serious, and to some extent 
an anxious, people. We spend our 
vitality lavishly in our work. 

Once out of harness, we ought 
for the time to vary the routine 
and to drop entirely the usual 
cares. The doctor, for instance, 
a man whose profession is most 
exacting, whose sleep is often 
invaded by a call to the sick-room, 
whose life is one of great responsi- 
bility, should seek a quiet country- 
side, and release from exertion 
63 





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Ube So^tul Xffe* 



all the faculties which are usually 
taxed. If he is fond of fishing, 
let him go out in his boat and 
spend hours seeking for a rise, 
or let him sit on the bank of a 
stream with his tackle, while the 
tranquil hours drift away in tran- 
quil sport. Fishing may not 
attract him, but golf may, or moun- 
tain climbing, or sailing, or walk- 
ing. Let him do anything except 
prescribe for the sick. The doctor 
should take a vacation, and give 
the rest of the man a chance for 
recuperation. 

So with the pastor. People are 
much too ready to ask ministers 
on a vacation to preach, to con- 
duct impromptu services, to help 
prayer meetings along by a sug- 
gestive address; in short, to con- 
64 



^V% 




Ubc tDacatton /Dontb. 



I 



tinue away from home the line 
of work in which they are engaged 
while there. This is very thought- 
less on the part of the pleaders, 
and a minister is not only justi- 
fied in refusing such services, but 
fairness to himself and his con- 
gregation requires him to refuse. 
No profession takes more out of 
mortal man than the service of 
the sanctuary. It is not hmited 
to the preparation and delivery 
of sermons; it extends to the life 
of the parish, to the visiting of the 
sick, the comforting of the be- 
reaved, the counseling of the per- 
plexed, the adjusting of difficul- 
ties, the raising of funds for 
various projects, and the gratu- 
itous performance of unnumbered 
public functions. A minister 
65 



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■'/;■-'• 

mM 




Ube 5oi?ful %iU. 

arrives at his annual vacation 
wearied intellectually, physically 
and spiritually. He is in a state 
of mental inertia, and needs noth- 
ing so much as absolute rest, and 
an opportunity to lie fallow for a 
while. Now is his time to go to 
church, and sit in a pew and listen ; 
to go to prayer-meeting and slip 
into a place near the door; to read 
books which merely entertain, and 
require small grasp of the think- 
ing powers, and to be freed from 
every social obligation except 
that of ordinary politeness. His 
wife, too, the busiest woman in 
the congregation, should share 
his holiday, wholly oblivious of 
the need to please this or that 
critical dame, and relieved of the 
strain which few ministers' wives 
66 



XCbe Vacation /Dontb* 



escape, of hearing sermons as if 
they heard them not in their sub- 
conscious feeUng of their effect on 
the audience. 

^^I have thoroughly enjoyed 
the Lord's house to-day/' said 
a friend, one summer evening. 
^' None of my kin were in the pul- 
pit.'' She was the daughter of 
one minister, the sister of another, 
and the wife of a third. Every 
minister and every minister's wife, 
in city or in country alike, should 
guard with jealous care their privi- 
lege of an annual vacation, never 
foregoing it on any short-sighted 
excuse of duty to the people. A 
rested man can give his people 
what a worn-out man has not to 
give. 

In these times of great demands 
67 




^^^^V 



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XTbe Joptttl %itc. 



upon teachers^ some of them are 
making the mistake of devoting 
entire vacations to study. A 
term in a summer school, if limi- 
ted; may prove stimulating and 
broadening to a tired teacher, 
but the better part of the recess 
should be devoted, not to study, 
but to dreaming in a hammock, 
or sleeping in a tent, or getting 
near to Nature^s heart. Teaching 
is not easy work. The teacher 
is giving her pupils soul stuff as 
well as information,and when va- 
cation opens the door to her for 
summer enjoyment and locks that 
of the schoolroom, the vacation 
should not be clipped off at the 
corners, nor invaded in the middle, 
not turned into a device for some- 
thing it was never meant to be. 
68 




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Having used these professional 
people by way of illustration, it 
may be as well to add that what 
applies to them is equally perti- 
nent to every worker in what- 
ever field the work is found. Some 
years ago Col. T. W. Higginson 
wrote a clever essay under the 
caption, ^^ Vacations for Saints/' 
especially pointing to the good 
women on whose shoulders rests 
the burden of asylums, hospitals, 
industrial schools and other phil- 
anthropic endeavors. It is no 
sinecure to serve on a board of 
management of a charity or of 
missions, and the sisterhood who 
engage in this particular altruistic 
labor emphatically earn and need 
a period of respite. One excel- 
lent gentlewoman has in her own 
69 



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TLbc ^o^fvd Xlfe* 



^^^^^ 




case solved the problem of securing 
adequate relief by now and then 
stepping out of her place for a 
year, but most of the elect ladies 
who work in practical charities 
are grateful for a simmier^s margin 
when they may feel no obligation 
either to attend meetings or to 
collect alms. 

Here let me not be misunder- 
stood. The Christian disciple can 
never, with any propriety, abate 
his or her Christian zeal, nor is 
there pardonable room for God's 
people to excuse themselves from 
his service of love when they are 
away from home. The preacher 
should not preach, but he should 
attend church; and equally, when 
vacation lures the city church 
member to a rural parish, that 
70 




VIM, 




Zbc IDacation flDontb* 



S 




person should keep the Sabbath, 
and set an example of piety when 
among strangers. I have heard 
a comitry parson of the plain- 
speaking type openly bewail the 
injury which the summer element 
in his neighborhood, an element 
largely composed of church people 
from town, did to his young folk. 
We live in a period of increasing 
and alarming license, of barriers 
pushed aside and landmarks re- 
moved. Indifference and apathy 
are as chilling to the growth of 
Christian graces as are open hos- 
tility. No vacation should be 
taken by a Christian from Bible 
study, from prayer, and from com- 
munion with Christ, and the ex- 
ercise of these duties and privi- 
leges will lead to the sort of Chris- 
71 



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XTbe Joyful Xife* 




tian living which sets a beautiful 
and consistent example. 

Relaxation is often found in 
change of pursuit, and the mother 
who has spent a twelvemonth 
in cooking dainty dishes may 
be glad to eat delicate fare which 
somebody else prepares. The 
catering for the household, how- 
ever simple the living may be, 
becomes motononous after a while, 
and a woman enjoys a meal which 
she has neither ordered nor pre- 
pared, coming to it as to a novelty. 
After a year of mending Tommy's 
trousers, and letting down Susie's 
tucks, and making Polly's frocks, 
and darning the stockings for the 
whole brood, with their father's 
thrown in as a make-weight, a 
lady may find diversion in taking 
72 



i:^\ 




Ube Vacation /Dontb. 



i 



up some beautiful fancy work, 
fine embroidery on fair white 
linen, or fleecy knitting, or some 
other feminine handicraft which 
is decorative rather than utili- 
tarian. 

Whether to spend vacations 
consecutively in a place one has 
tried and learned to love, or to 
go about looking for new points 
of interest, must be decided by 
individual taste and by the depth 
of the pocketbook. People may 
spend a most satisfactory vaca- 
tion at home, taking excursions 
to interesting localities near by, 
at a small cost. One's own living- 
rooms, bathing facilities, and the 
proximity of excellent markets, 
make this perfectly feasible. But 
change is wise, if it can be com- 
73 



i 





m^ 




XTbe Jopful %iU. 



passed. Home seems always 
sweeter when one returns to it 
after an absence than when one 
stays in it always. From the 
inexpensive farmhouse, where 
plain and good fare may be had, 
to the inn of high prices and many 
luxuries; there is wide room for 
choice. Many families in these 
days transform the home as an 
integer in the vacation, taking 
camp equipage and establishing 
themselves in tents for an interval 
of simplicity and healthful out- 
door life, of ^^ roughing it^' in the 
woods, and of doing without 
appliances which at home are 
essential. Or they hire a cot- 
tage, furnished or the reverse, and 
transfer the housekeeping thereto. 
This is an admirable way to 
74 





Ube Vacation ^ontb. 



m 



i 



secure a fine vacation for every- 
one except the mother, whose 
cares are not much lightened, and 
whose regime undergoes sHght 
modification. 

If we visit friends in vacation, 
there are two or three very simple 
rules to be observed. We must 
go when we are asked and ex- 
pected, and take leave at the time 
specified in our invitation. It is 
customary for invitations in these 
days to state definitely the time 
of a guest's coming and going. 
People who entertain many 
friends find it desirable to arrange 
a schedule, so that congenial per- 
sons may come together, that 
servants be not unduly taxed, 
and that the guest rooms be ready 
and comfortable. A guest must 
75 




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Ube 5ostul Xife. 



be pleased and appreciative and 
contribute pleasure to the common 
stock; must observe the ways of 
the house, at times efface herself, 
and be agreeable to old people 
and children under the roof of her 
hostess. To be invited to one's 
home is the finest of compliments, 
and to pass a vacation in making 
delightful visits is to taste the 
honey brew of affection and loving 
attention. 

The essence of good breeding 
is in unselfish consideration for 
others. That will be the most 
successful vacation in which we 
have made others happy, in which 
we have not too anxiously dwelt 
on our own wishes and needs, 
and in which we have most 
earnestly tried to live according 
76 



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^^^^^^^^ 



Ube IDacatfon /IDontb* 



to the pattern set us by the 
Man of Nazareth. Only as we 
are Christ-hke can we be sure 
of Christ^ s peace, whether we 





mm 



ON that September day, 
now a part of the van- 
ished past, when our 
whole nation, and many other 
nations uniting with us in sym- 
pathy, paid funeral honors to our 
martyred President, the beautiful 
hymn of Sarah Flower Adams was 
sung almost around the globe. 
Street bands played it, hard- 
handed laborers and swarthy 
miners sang it, spoiled children 
of fashion joined in its lofty strain, 
the rich and the poor, the learned 
79 




^^^^^^^^^^ 






and the unlearned, moved by a 
common sentiment, touched by 
a common emotion, joined in the 
rhythm of ^^ Nearer, My God, to 
Thee!'' One heard it in the 
churches, in the homes, in the 
schools. For the moment it took 
precedence of '' America/' It was 
the national hymn of the republic, 
the hymn that in the last hours 
had comforted Mr. McKinley, the 
hymn that expressed in crystalli- 
zation, the devotion, the love and 
longing of millions of aching 
hearts. 

" Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee; 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me, 
Still all my song shall be 
Nearer, my God; to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee!'' 




mearness to <5o&* 



What is nearness to God? The 
question is a pertinent one to us 
as we stand; some of us in Hfe^s 
morning prime, some in its fervid 
noon, some almost home. May 
we be conscious in the pressure 
of daily care, and in our joys and 
sorrows as they come, that God 
is near us, and we are near him? 

In the experience of friendship 
between loving hearts in the house- 
hold, there is nearness, in pro- 
portion as there is union, and as 
sympathy in work and thought 
strengthens the bond. When we 
love an earthly friend so dearly 
that our first impulse is to give 
him pleasure, our most earnest 
and urgent desire is to do his will, 
then to that friend we are near. 
Estrangement brings remoteness, 
81 







Ube 5oi?ful Xife* 



If there creep in stealthily to the 
sweetest relation, indifference, 
apathy, or weariness, the sense 
of nearness ceases. Equally if 
there arise hostility, anger, war- 
fare, there is an end of nearness, 
which implies confidence, inti- 
macy and peace. 

Using this as illustrative, we 
may discern how a soul can drift 
away from the heavenly Father, 
becoming so occupied with the 
world and its pursuits that there 
will be no wish for God,or engaging 
in ambitions, which are in antago- 
nism to the Divine purpose and 
nature, may range itself on the 
side of Satan. Among the crowds 
who sang "Nearer, My God, to 
Thee,'^ in their deep bereavement 
of heart when our President was 
82 



'neatness to <Bo&» 



PI 



taken, were persons of both these 
types. Perhaps the hymn inter- 
posed a wedge between their lower 
and higher selves ; perhaps it gave 
to some a dawning perception of 
what it might be to share the 
Christianas hope, the Christian's 
faith, the Christian's joy. 

'^ Though, Hke the wanderer 

The sun gone down, 
Darkness be over me, 

My rest a stone, 
Yet in my dreams I'd be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee." 

None can be near to God in the 
subconsciousness of waking or 
sleeping hours, in whom there 
does not abide all the while a 
principle of reverence and a con- 
tinual trust. The lad who saw 
angels ascending and descending 
83 




XTbe 50Bf ul %itc. 



on the ladder let down from the 
sky was a sinful being, capable of 
great meanness, most imperfect, 
most unworthy, and at the very 
time of his dream of heaven an 
exile from home, in flight because 
of a wrong committed against his 
brother. But notwithstanding all 
this, he was a devout believer, 
and from his youth up he remained 
so. We cannot read the story of 
Jacob without observing that at 
no period of his career was he an 
alien from God. So God cared 
for him lovingly as he lay down 
in the desert, and his sleep was 
radiant with a vision from the rifted 
canopy of stars above his head. 
We may grow in nearness to 
God in several ways, but we must 
be assured that we long for and 
84 



nearness to Go^. 

^^^ ^ 

appreciate the state in which, hke 
Enoch, we walk with him, or we 
shall stay contentedly on a lower 
level. Aspiration precedes en- 
deavor. Vision is the precursor 
of effort. It was said by the 
Master, of the pure in heart, that 
they should see God. If any 
man sees, if any man have eyes, 
opened to the glory and the beauty, 
the wisdom and the love of the 
Father, that man will seek after 
him. The love of the world and 
the love of the Father cannot 
abide together in the same soul. 
When the dominant motive is 
to know the will of the Lord and 
intense determination to serve 
him, there will be what old-fash- 
ioned disciples used to talk about, 
growth in grace. 
85 



^^'I 



^|^3^^^}C^f^3^ 



Aspiration will not waste itself 
in mere poetic thought, if it be 
true. The soul that aspires, prays. 
The more earnestly and constantly 
one prays, the closer will be the 
approach to God. Prayer is not 
only asking for blessings, it is in 
itself a blessing and a privilege, 
and when one truly prays one is 
aware of uplift, of strength, of 
courage and of power. Enter 
into thy closet, and shut thy 
door, and pray to thy Father, 
and thy Father, which seeth in 
secret, shall reward thee openly. 

After aspiration what? Natu- 
rally in sequence, endeavor. Do- 
ing the will of God, doing it in 
little things, doing it wherever 
he has placed us. In the shop, 
in the kitchen, on the highway. 
86 



vn^,^v 






:57C5 



mearness to <Bo&* 



Not always is the service one we 
would choose, but if God choose 
it for us, we are not reluctant ; we 
try to obey. Often the task is 
set for us in a lowly place, a place 
of great obscurity. No matter. 
If God sent us down in the dark, 
his candle will light our every 
step. What does it mean to you 
or me, that day by day we find 
opportunities growing out of the 
soil of humility, like forget-me- 
nots on the bank of the rippling 
stream, if not that God is assign- 
ing us the daily work, and that 
in his view every place is honor- 
able in which he uses our hands. 
What cheer and gladness we find 
in following the Master, even 
when the clouds gather thickly 
and the cross weighs heavily. 
87 



XTbe Joyful %ffe* 



For, dear friends, when the cross 
is most a burden, it is also most a 
lever, lifting us skyward. 

The temptation to seclude one^s 
self from the activities and con- 
tacts of the world, and to step 
aside and stay in the cloister has 
come to many a child of God. 
But, unless He himself shuts the 
door and puts a hedge around one, 
nearness to him is not thus surely 
found. The devil can penetrate 
into the cell, and thoughts wander 
even in the brooding hush of the 
sanctuary. Rather shall we win 
our way to him by placing our- 
selves at his disposal, and discover 
new surprises of his love by living 
where we may bring others to know 
the fulness of the Lord's kindness. 

Possibly, for some of us, the 
88 



s/Tv^r^r^ 



^w^ 




nearness to <Bo&^ 



path into the presence chamber 
Ues by the milestone marked 
^^ Giving/' What self-denial is in- 
volved in our gifts? Do we cheer- 
fully bestow some regular portion 
of the income we receive that the 
Lord's work may prosper? Do 
we contribute our time, our inter- 
est, our influence? They who give 
liberally to any cause feel a per- 
sonal enthusiasm for it, which is 
unknown unless they have some- 
thing invested. The cause to 
which we give nothing is not dear, 
does not belong to us. When 
we deny ourselves joyfully for 
Christ, we realize that he is our 
friend. We say, as never before, 
^^I am my Beloved's, and my 
Beloved is mine." Often our 
best way to give is through an 
89 









established agency which carries 
on a larger work than the indi- 
vidual can undertake ; through the 
society which disseminates gospel 
literature; or sends the word of 
God to those who need it, or starts 
churches and Sunday schools in 
frontier settlements, or sends mis- 
sionaries to far lands across the 
sea. Where we cannot go our repre- 
sentatives may, if we care enough 
to furnish the means, and as we 
worship the Lord in our giving, we 
grow into such acquaintance with 
him, that our quiet homes are true 
Beth-els, houses where God dwells. 

*' Or, if on joyful wing 
Cleaving the sky, 
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, 

Upward I fly. 
Still all my song shall be. 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
Nearer to Thee/' 
90 



r-^r, 



With its final burst of blissful 
anticipation the beautiful and fa- 
miliar hymn carries us up to the 
gates of the city of gold. Its 
climax is one of grand, sweeping 
movement and majesty. From 
our birth we have had constant 
occasion to thank God for his 
unremitting, never-ceasing provi- 
dential goodness, new every morn- 
ing, and fresh every evening. If 
we are ready to drop into a mood 
of pessimism, a good tonic will be 
found in recounting our reasons 
for gratitude. They will always 
amaze us by their number. The 
disposition in most of us to ex- 
aggerate our difficulties and to 
linger in the shadow of our dis- 
couragements clouds much of our 

sunshine, and it is well to stop 
91 








now and then and think over all 
the bright things. When we are 
most grateful; then are we nearest 
to God. 

Suppose we pause and take an 
inventory in this informal talk, 
of our reasons for happiness. Let 
us not even glance at those things 
which may appear depressing. 
What are our assets in the line 
of satisfaction? Shall we count 
health as one of them? The doc- 
tor's visits to us have been few 
and far between in the months 
that are passed. Our children 
are vigorous and their school life 
is seldom interrupted. Our homes 
are cheery. The circle of bright 
heads around the lamp has not 
been lately broken by illness, or 
by death. We often have good 
92 




■ '/'% 



^^] 



nearness to aob^ 



news from our absent ones.' The 
boy in business has the approval 
of his employer. The girl in high 
school or at college is diligent 
and faithful. There is always 
reason for thanksgiving in being 
able to work, and in having work 
to do. Those who are idle wil- 
fully lose half the joy of existence. 
Those who are idle compulsorily 
are objects of compassion. 

In our personal history, that 
unwritten history which only God 
knows wholly, we have reasons 
daily multiphed for giving him 
praise, especially for the many, 
many times when we have been 
able by his help to vanquish the 
adversary and to overcome the 
sin that doth most easily beset 
us! How often have we felt the 
93 









strong hand of the unseen Friend, 
helping us when we were in ex- 
tremity. For all his mercies shall 
we not praise and bless his name 
always, and thus dwell in sweet 
nearness to him? 

" For the love that never fails to us, 

For the grace that ever guides, 
For the comfort of his leading 

When the soul in him confides. 
Here we thank and praise the giver 

Of the good that ever comes 
Daily, like a flowing river, 

Blessing happy hearts and homes." 

I think the Christian who has no 
sweet experience of living near 
the Lord, has never risen to the 
blessedness of privilege to which 
he has a right. The King will 
give royally if we will receive, 
but we ask like paupers. We are 
willing to take the beggar's crust, 
94 




I 




WITH December comes 
the beautiful consum- 
mation of the year. 
Behind us He Autumn with her 
varied splendor of coloring and 
her rich fruitage, Summer with 
her pomp of bloom and wealth 
of golden grain, Spring with her 
sweetness of blossom and tender 
atmosphere of hope and love. 
Before us as December's doors 
swing wide are days of cold and 
storm, frost, snow, sleet, wild 
97 



mil 



^^^^^^^^s 



Ube 5oBf ul %iU. 



winds by sea and shore, but there 
also stretches invitingly a pro- 
cession of happy mornings and 
evenings at home, and best of all, 
December brings us Christmas. 
Christmas, the world's great fes- 
tival, gathering to itself, as the 
months and years go by, the 
sacred associations which cluster 
forever around the incarnation, 
is our gladdest anniversary, be- 
cause we keep it as Christ's birth- 
day. It does not matter in the 
least whether December twenty- 
fifth is, or is not, the precise day 
on which Mary first held her baby 
in her arms, while shepherds and 
wise men worshiped him. On 
some day in the long history of 
this earth, the fulness of time 
came, and God sent into it his only 
98 



^^^^^^^^^M 



Cbrfstmas Ibolls* 



begotten Son, on a mission of 
redemption. By common con- 
sent this day we keep as Christmas 
has been selected as that anniver- 
sary, and all nations are joining 
in the acclaim which arises in its 
hallowed dawning to praise Im- 
manueFs name. 

Still let us joyfully listen on 
Christmas Eve, as the midnight 
hour passes, for the echoes of the 
anger s song, ^^ Glory to God in 
the highest, on earth peace, good 
will to men.'' Still let us watch 
with the wise men of old and see 
the star, ^^ brightest and best of 
the sons of the morning.'' Still 
let us bring to the manger our 
gifts, gold and frankincense and 
myrrh. For now, as when Christ 
came to Bethlehem, he comes 

99 

L.cfC, 




■ •■/ J AA'v V 



Ube Jostttl %ifc. 



to be born again in human hearts, 
and evermore we may sing: 

" Thy home is with the humble, Lord, 
The simple are thy rest; 
Thy lodging is in childlike hearts, 
And there thou mak'st thy nest." 

There is special fitness in that 
observance of Christmas which 
centraHzes the happiness of child- 
hood. To those of us who love 
children, they constantly reveal 
surprises of trust and possibilities 
of rare development. We under- 
stand why our Lord set a child 
in the midst of the disciples and 
said, ^^ Whosoever shall not re- 
ceive the Kingdom of God as a 
little child, he shall not enter 
therein.'^ Jesus in the Yule-tide 
days is once more among us as a 
child. No mere mortal child so 
100 



^S^;^^^^^^^ 



Cbrfstmas Ibolli?* 



pure, so docile, so wonderful as 
he, yet in very deed a child, subject 
to his parents, and living beside 
his fair young mother in her little 
home in Nazareth. Looking at 
him, as the Child in the midst of 
us, we are led to look more care- 
fully and with gentler thought- 
fulness at our own children and 
at the hosts of children outside 
our own households. 

What is our first impulse to- 
ward the little ones in the home? 
Most of us without an instant's 
hesitation answer that we desire 
the best for them, the best in edu- 
cation, in training, in companion- 
ship, and that we earnestly long 
to make them as happy as we can. 
Realizing how brief a period in 
life childhood must be and how 
101 







soon our dear boys and girls must 
be pushed out into life with its 
trials and conflicts^ it is natural 
and right that we should make 
the children happy. We do this 
most effectually when we early 
impress them with Christ's beauty, 
when we teach them unselfish- 
ness, and lead them in the straight 
and narrow pathway of love. 

When we load the Christmas 
tree with pretty gifts for John 
and Jean, and induce them for 
weeks beforehand to tell us what 
they want and what they hope 
to receive, entirely overlooking 
their part in Christmas giving, we 
do them a wrong. A one-sided 
Christmas cannot be joyful, even 
to a little child. The true Christ- 
mas spirit fosters self-denial and 

102 



Cbrfstmas l)olIi?* 



bestowal, and the child who makes 
no small or large sacrifice, that he 
may send a present to some one 
outside, or give something to his 
mother or sister, loses a precious 
opportunity and is in peril of being 
morally dwarfed. 

Come with me to a social settle- 
ment on the East side of the 
bustling city of New York on 
Christmas Eve. Upstairs and 
down children are thronging, for 
the house belongs to them, and is 
more a home in their eyes than 
the tenements where they sleep, 
and snatch such meals as poverty 
can give them. Here they are, 
fair-haired Germans, dark-eyed 
Hebrews, blue-eyed Danes, oval- 
faced Italians, the proportion of 
whatever nationality is upper- 
103 



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i^S 






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\S 


; (T^ VJIAI 


^^p 


^P 


r 




lH- 


R^^ 

/■^^'■.v^ 


V,-,. A 



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i 



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xrbe 5ostul Xtfe. 



Si 



most in the locality indicated by 
the type most numerous among 
the children. They have no fine 
clothes, though few of them are 
in rags, for the tenement mother 
has her own decent pride, and 
does her best to send her offspring 
forth whole, if not clean, from her 
hands. But how cheerful they 
are, how beatific is their rapture, 
how charming is the look of 
motherhood in the faces of little 
girls, as they lovingly brood over 
their new dolls, and how delighted 
are the boys with skates, balls 
or sleds! When they sing, their 
whole hearts are poured out in the 
hymns, and few hearts in the 
round world are more intensely 
joyful. 

My point is this, that not only 
104 




m 




we, who are grown-up, should 
add to our Christmas fehcity by 
making some asylum, or working- 
girls' club, or settlement, able 
to cheer its beneficiaries at Christ- 
mas, but that we should bring 
up our children in the habit of good 
will. Every little one in a home 
replete with comfort should early 
learn that he or she can help to 
brighten the lot of a child who is 
less well off, of a child whose little 
feet are treading stormy path- 
ways. The Sunday-school that 
foregoes its own annual treat, 
in order that it may provide 
one for a school elsewhere, will, 
on the whole, have a more delight- 
ful and satisfactory Christmas 
than the one which simply absorbs 
all that the fathers and mothers of 
105 





« 



&. 




Ube 5oi?fuI %itc. 



the church, and its short-sighted 
teachers will give it. 

Let us broaden out a little 
more. Christmas to some of us 
brings great store of useful and 
beautiful souvenirs, some of them 
very costly, others inexpensive. 
To give away what has been given 
to us is usually regarded as ex- 
ceedingly ungracious, and there 
are many friendly tokens, so per- 
sonal and so exclusively designed 
for their recipients, that they pass 
into the realm of sweet happen- 
ings and dear memories and belong 
to our treasured things. But of 
the lovely, even exquisite cards 
and leaflets and books which we 
receive, a large number might 
well be enjoyed and passed on. 
To the children in a mission school 
106 



Cbrlstmas Ibolli?. 



far across the sea, to the parson- 
age home on our Western frontier, 
to the children in a mountain 
cabin in Tennessee, our super- 
fluities of Christmas gladness and 
gifts might bring great pleasure. 
Keep this hint in mind for another 
year, and let the children know 
that if they do not abuse or destroy 
their own gifts, but keep them in 
measurably good order, they may 
be sent by and by, when they have 
outgrown them, to give another 
lease of delight to other children, 
perhaps under another sky. 

Leaving this phase of Christ- 
mas, in this discursive talk, sup- 
pose we glance at Christmas orna- 
mentation. Not now is the hour 
of the frail anemone, of the white 
lily, of the fragrant rose. Not 
107 




^^^^^E^^F^ 



^:fei 



Ube Sosful Xifc. 



ba^x^ 



even the hollyhock, the gentian, 
the chrysanthemum, or any of 
the magnificent flowers of the 
fall, belong of right to Christmas. 
No, we decorate our homes and 
churches in December with the 
strong deep green of the cedar, fir 
and pine, with the glossy leaf and 
the shining scarlet berry of the 
holly, with the beaded whiteness 
of the mistletoe peeping out from 
sheltering leaves, with the spoils 
of the woods and the unfading 
glory of the evergreen. 

Ages ago it was written of the 
good man, ^^His leaf also shall not 
wither, and whatsoever he doeth 
shall prosper.'^ In the deep dark 
green of Christmas wreaths and 
the spicy scent of Christmas gar- 
lands, there is the renewal in our 
108 



(6^ 



Cbrfstmas Dolli?. 



minds of this assurance of the 
ultimate success and prosperity 
of the man who Hves to do God's 
will. True, to such an one there 
may come ups and downs, and 
many strange reverses and vicis- 
situdes. The cedar of Lebanon 
was not raised in a hothouse. The 
tree that is strong and tough and 
fair and full of fadeless leaves on 
sturdy boughs was nurtured under 
the stars and sun, rocked by the 
tempest, powdered by the snow, 
and tried by the fierceness of the 
north wind. But as nothing can 
permanently hurt ^Hhe tree God 
plants, '^ so, if we love God, noth- 
ing can harm us, but all things 
shall work together for our good. 
Choosing our Christmas presents 
is one of the most exciting and on 
109 




g^ 



Ube Joyful Xife. 



the whole delightsome occupa- 
tions of the year. Women get 
much more satisfaction out of 
this than men^ the latter being 
too busy, as a rule, to give to it 
the time and thought which it 
requires. On the other hand, men 
often have a legitimate occasion 
for complaint, in the fact that 
the gifts to them of their wives 
and daughters are frequently far 
from individual. A man is given 
something that fills a felt want 
in his wife's mind, a piece of fur- 
niture, or a picture, or some bric- 
a-brac which helps to furnish the 
parlor or dining-room. He amiably 
accepts it, but it has contributed 
little to his real pleasure. Both 
men and women, if they enlist in 
the campaign of Christmas giving, 
110 



7 '/I 




should select their offerings with 
discretion, judgment and adapta- 
tion to the tastes and needs of the 
one whom they desire to please. 

A merry, merry Christmas 

To all who tread to-day 
The age-long road to Bethlehem 

Where once our Saviour lay — 
A little child in swaddhng clothes 

While cattle near him lowed; 
And in the sky above his head 

The Star of centuries glowed. 

A merry, merry Christmas 

To every weary heart 
That brings its load of care to One 

^Tio in our grief has part; 
A merry Christmas to the soul 

That lowly bows to him, 
Before whose face the seraphim 

Grow in their whiteness dim. 

A merr\' Christmas unto all 

Who open wide the door, 
That Jesus Christ may enter in 

And dwell forever more. 
Exalted be his wondrous name, 

And glory be his own; 
Who conquered sin and death for us, 

And sits upon the throne. 
Ill 



W^^-Q^ 



"^"(tv^pm 



A merry, merry Christmas 

To every little child, 
Who clasps the hand of Jesus, 

And loves the undefiled, 
And may the light of Christmas 

From heaven's fair palace stream 
And all the year be brighter in 

Its radiant living gleam. 

^^Unto us a child is born, unto 
us a son is given; and the govern- 
ment shall be upon his shoulder: 
and his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace/^ 

Dear friends, may the next 
Christmas bring you and me into 
closer and sweeter relationship 
than ever before to Christ our 
Lord. 




IF life were a uniform level, 
broken by no vicissitudes and 
no disasters, with no strange and 
baffling problems alternating with 
its seasons of tranquillity and suc- 
cess, it would be perhaps less trying 
than it generally is, but also much 
less interesting. Nothing is more 
tedious than monotony. Nothing 
wears on the nerves like a stirless 
calm. The wildest gusts and storms 
are more acceptable to the mariner 
than the inaction which is compul- 
sory when the wind moves not, 
113 



XTbe 5o^ful Xife. 



I once met an old, old lady, 
who said that her whole life had 
been as placid as a summer sea. 
At long intervals some member 
of her family had died, but as she 
had no children the most intimate 
and deep of afflictions had been 
spared her, and her husband still 
survived. Strange to say, I did 
not feel that she was to be envied. 
Without pain in this world's 
economy there is little reaching 
forward to the heights of joy; 
without suffering there is seldom 
intensity of thankfulness ; without 
birth-throes there is little apparent 
growth in the spiritual realm. 
Life all a plain road, no hills to 
climb, no obstacles to surmount, 
no vicissitudes to endure, is not 
so desirable on the whole, as life 
114 



• /^ 



f^r^( 



which has its struggles, its sorrows 
and its losses, preliminary as they 
come to the final realization of 
its triumphs, its consolations and 
its everlasting gains. 

The time for sturdy resistance 
to the difficulties and temptations 
of the day is usually the period 
of youth, when one is facing the 
future, as well as realizing the 
present, and when the past does 
not loom large in one's view. The 
past of youth is very short; the 
future looks interminable, and 
the immediate present is stren- 
uous. Middle age often carries 
the burdens which youth has 
brought to it, carries them with 
a steadfast courage, and a serene 
cheer impossible to youth; and old 
age is, or should be, the season 
115 



'^^\f:^0^^"^&}^ 




Uhc Joyful %ifc. 



of tranquillity : the season of rest- 
ing on the oars and waiting for 
the end. 

"Sunset and evening star 
And one clear call for me, 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 
When I put out to sea/' 



In retrospective hours we some- 
times perceive that we made mis- 
takes in our bygone reckonings. 
We might have avoided some 
snares and pitfalls had we not 
rushed along at a break-neck 
pace. We might have been less 
impulsive, and made wiser calcu- 
lations, and taken precautions 
against disaster. But what is the 
use of grieving unduly over what 
is past retrieval? Better far to be 
^^up and doing with a heart for 
116 






Xffe'5 IHvB ani) Bowns* 



any fate.'^ The past is gone, but 
the present is ours. 

An elderly gentlewoman was 
talking with me one day about the 
fortunes and misfortunes of her 
family. ^^ There was a time/' she 
said, ^^when my father owned 
the entire tract of land in which 

the city of L (a thriving 

Western city) now stands. Had 
he held on to it till values rose 
we would now be enormously 
wealthy instead of being worn 
out with poverty, but father did 
not imagine its possibilities, and 
exchanged the property for land 
that proved to be worth very 
little.'^ 

I know of similar instances. 
They have been very common in 
this new and rapidly developing 
117 





^s 




^^M. 




\\\\\ 



^1^ 






country. And almost invariably 
I have heard heirs of what-might- 
have-been speak of the vanished 
riches that had eluded their grasp 
with the deepest regret. Yet, 
as we glance around our acquaint- 
anceS; we do not always find 
that wealth and luxury have 
brought the best things in their 
train. Young men have degener- 
ated, young women have been 
led into selfishness and frivolity 
through a too easy life and the 
possession of too much money. 
My friend, whose sons and daugh- 
ters were noble men and women, 
need not have deplored the fact 
that they had been reared in a 
school where the students acquire 
self-reliance by some bouts with 
adversity. 

118 




^^^^s ^^^^ 



fMi 



%itc'B tips ant) H)owns» 




If one can but take whatever 
comes as part of God's plan, and 
not as the happening of a bhnd 
chance, one will be surer of con- 
tent. Apian of God in every life, 
and life jo}rfully lived in accord- 
ance with God's plan, is a good 
formula for true happiness. 

Suppose we fancy, in this twi- 
light between times talk, how one 
may make the best of things in 
the days of the Valley of Hu- 
miliation. You remember that 
Bunyan's pilgrim went through 
this place singing quaintly, 

^' He that is down need fear no fall : 
He that is low, no pride; 
He that is humble ever shall 
Have God to be his guide/' 

And you remember, too, that 
in those gentle glades, the Heart's 
119 



(Q^,,. 
■^^ 



Ube Joyful Xife. 



1 



Ease was very apt to flourish? 
There are worse places on the 
pilgrimage than this sheltered vale, 
where one has much occasion to 
rest in and call on God every 
hour. 

Once, away back in the years 
that are sweetest to recall, I knew 
a group of people, mother and 
daughters, whom our Civil War 
had despoiled of their all. They 
lived in two or three rooms, though 
theirs had been a wide and stately 
mansion. They did their own 
work merrily, though a retinue 
had formerly served them. They 
were in need of clothing, some- 
times in need of fuel, sometimes 
of food. But I never saw them 
otherwise than gay of aspect and 
brightly ready to meet every ex- 
120 



Xlfe's XDlps ant) 2)owns^ 



"^4) 



perience with a smile. It was 
not resignation they showed, nor 
fortitude, nor even courage. It 
was a combination of the three 
quahties, and the element that 
fused it was an unfaltering re- 
ligious faith. One morning an 
acquaintance and I met in a call 
at their house. When we came 
away this lady said severely: 

^^Well, I call such conduct rep- 
rehensible. Those women should 
have been sewing, making up that 
bolt of cloth the society sent 
them last week. Scissors haven't 
touched it yet! And they were 
reading, if you please; reading 
Towper^s Task' and Sir Walter 
Scott's ^Tales of a Grandfather.'" 

For my part I had no censure 
to make. In due time, no doubt, 

121 



^^^' 



\^.(^ 



P 



Ubc 3o^t\xl %itc. 



% 



the white musHn was fashioned 
into useful and needed garments, 
but the old Southern habit of 
browsing in a library, of reading 
over and over the books made ^\y^ 
dear by the use and wont of a life- 
time was more precious than any 
article a woman's fingers could 
fabricate. Those ladies were not 
dependent on new books. Those 
which they had inherited from 
book-loving ancestors were suffi- 
cient for them, and they had cul- 
ture as opposed to the swift, 
superficial intelligence of a later 
day. Years after I met them, 
now on the top wave of success. 
One girl, was an artist, another 
an author, another a teacher, and 
the old mother, still in black silk, 
with lace ruffles at neck and wrists, 

122 



/•^ 






continued to read Cowper and 
Sir Walter Scott in unbroken 
serenity. 

Ups and downs in life are like 
an undulating land. In America 
it is peculiarly the case that he 
or she who is down to-day may 
be up again to-morrow. Business 
reversals and successes are as 
recurrent as the movement of a 
see -saw in commercial towns. 
But the changes of feeling and 
condition which are consequent 
upon wealth or its opposite are 
slight compared with those born 
of the inner life. Material things 
are less potential than spiritual. 
Externals never strike so deeply 
into the soul as the experiences 
which spring from the soul itself. 
The wounded spirit who can bear? 
123 



^( *^M^ 




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Ube 3oi?tuI Xffe* 



K^S^^-;^.^^ 



When friends prove disappointing 
or false, when the beloved wander 
into wrong pathways, when the 
heart strays from its childhood 
teachings and loses its first love, 
when the chill frost of doubt 
benumbs faith, then one learns 
what real distress is. When one 
mournfully says, in the despair 
of the unmoored and shipwrecked 
hour, ^^A believing heart is gone 
from me,'^ he touches the bottom 
of earthly trouble. Yet here, too, 
there is help for whoever shall 
seek and accept it from the Word. 
^^He that cometh to God must 
believe that he is, and that he is 
the rewarder of them that dili- 
gently seek him.^^ When one, 
climbing from the depths of hope- 
lessness and infidelity, gets a firm 
124 




Xffe'9 xaps auD H)owns^ 



footing on that rock, he may 
ascend at last to the uplands of 
God, where he shall say, ^^I know 
whom I have believed and am 
persuaded that he is able to keep 
that which I have committed 
unto him against that day/' 

There are temperaments which 
are naturally sanguine and even 
mercurial, and they stand their 
possessors in good stead in many 
an exigency. Others are easily 
disturbed, and inordinately de- 
pressed by untoward incidents. 
There are forward folk who are 
fretful and cross oftener than they 
are amiable, and moody folk 
whose persistent despondency acts 
on their friends as a wet blanket. 

One of the most successful 
recipes for curing the blues, no 
125 



i-^' 



^ 



Mv^^ 



xrbe Jopful Xffe. 



^^^^^^^^^ 



matter what their source, is to 
engage actively in some work 
outside one's self. The tonic of 
necessary labor is not always 
within reach of the rich, and so, 
occasionally, they drift into apathy 
and from apathy into nervous 
prostration, troubles which they 
would escape if compelled to ex- 
ertion. Of a wretched hypochon- 
driac, a wise physician once said, 
^^She would soon recover if she 
were obliged to do her family 
washing.'' Unselfish work for 
others is a sovereign remedy for 
melancholy. Forget yourself. Do 
good to some one else. As the 
poet aptly says, 

'^ Is thy cruse of comfort failing? 
Rise and share it with another, 
And through all the years of famine 
It shall serve thee and thy brother. '^ 
126 



v^r^. 



file's xaps anb Downs. 



Through the various ups and 
downs of a very uncertain world, 
I advise people to cling to a home 
of their own. No matter how 
tiny or obscure your house, live 
by yourself with only your near- 
est of kin, if you possibly can. It 
is forlorn work going back and 
forth over other people ^s stairs. 
Some of us keep house, spread the 
table, buy furniture, choose our 
street, spend our money, with a 
view to what our neighbors think 
and say, instead of with refer- 
ence to our own means and our 
honorable independence; in which 
we are amazingly foolish. Living 
beyond one^s income is a fruitful 
occasion for down-heartedness, 
and justly so. A little margin, 
be it ever so little, insures peace 
127 



Ubc Jostul %itc. 





of mind and cheerfulness, but he or 
she who is on the ragged edge of 
financial incertitude cannot be 
radiant. 

Amid the many ups and downs 
of earth, is it not as well to re- 
member that here we have no 
continuing city, but we seek one 
to come, and so, to keep fast hold 
upon heaven and God? A life 
allied to God is stable, come what 
may. 

We are not left to rely upon mere 
sentiment for this alliance. We 
have footholds carved in the up- 
hill road. The Saviour has trod- 
den it, the saints have followed 
him; it leads to the light tha.t 
streams from the Father's house. 
The Christian who lives in daily 
dependence upon God, consciously, 
128 



if 
m 



^ys 




%ites xaps anl) H)owns* 



lovingly, earnestly calling on him 
for aid and support and wis- 
dom, must ultimately be victo- 
rious. 

Thoughtful Bible reading is a 
great help over hard places. There 
are so many parallel cases to our 
own in the wonderful narratives 
of the Scriptures. So many bits 
of counsel, adapted to our needs, 
let that need be what it may. So 
many songs in the night. So 
often a feast of manna for the 
famished, or a fountain of water 
springing up to quench the thirst 
of the wayfarer. I wish we who 
read oftener memorized the clear 
words of truth, and that children 
were induced to lay them up as 
a part of their mental wealth. 
For in the ups and downs of 
129 







a mew J^eat 
flDebitatiom 



ONE of my old school- 
mates, a girl who used 
to sit at the same 
desk with me when we were in 
our teens, came not long ago to 
make me a little visit. In our 
different ways we have both been 
very busy since those bright days 
when we studied French verbs and 
Latin conjugations together, and 
dipped into mathematics and ex- 
plored ancient history, albeit our 
school was only a seminary for 
young ladies, and the era of the 
131 



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Ube 5osf ul %itc. 



woman's college had not yet 
dawned. In passing, let me say 
a good word for the fidelity of 
the old-time preceptors and the 
thoroughness of the instruction 
they imparted. I am not disposed 
to undervalue anything in the 
latter curriculum, but there were 
well-educated women, cultured, 
disciplined, and broadened by 
their intellectual training, before 
the great colleges set wide doors 
open for the entrance of girl- 
students. After all, the best re- 
sult of an educational course is 
seen in its success in putting 
tools in the hand for use in the 
life-work, and in the symmetry 
with which it develops character. 
We talked late, Miriam and I, 
just as we did in our twenties, 
132 




vv 



H mew l^ear /DeMtation* 



but much of our conversation 
was retrospective. So many of 
those who had been once with us 
had gone across the river to the 
blessedness beyond. So many of 
those who remained were in far 
lands, or, in the activities of the 
world, had disappeared from our 
ken, that we had a new sense of 
the changefulness and loneliness 
of this earth. 

"I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger, 
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night,'' 

means more to us now than it did 
in the May morning of our youth. 
Miriam is a bright, breezy person 
whose heart is the gayer because 
she is the mother of a house full 
of children, and has always had 
young people about her, needing 
her counsel and coming to her 
133 



w^y-^ 



\r^^^r^Or 




Ube 3osful %itc. 



for the settlement of her vexed 
questions. She does not look her 
real age, but then nobody does 
that any longer; we are all ten 
years younger than we used to 
be, so much more closely do we 
follow the laws of health, and so 
much greater is the ease of 
modern living, what with labor- 
saving contrivances and luxuries 
of which our mothers and grand- 
mothers never dreamed. 

I remember hearing my mother 
say that she put on the cap which 
she wore when she was past 
seventy on her thirtieth birthday. 
A matron whom I knew when I 
was nineteen said soberly, when 
she was thirty-four, ^^I am now 
middle-aged. I must lay aside 
youthful pomps and vanities. ^^ 
134 



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Af\- 



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mv 



W 



To-day, the woman, married or 
single, who is under forty years is 
a young woman, and her looks 
convey no other impression. At 
fifty the gracious lady bears her- 
self as thirty-five was wont to do 
two score years ago, and the 
active person of sixty is far 
from claiming immunity from 
service, or any privileges of ease, 
on account of her age. Miriam 
and I felicitated ourselves that 
this is the golden age of the grand- 
mother. 

^^ But, my dear, '^ said my friend 
musingly, ^^how short the years 
are getting to be. Don^t you 
recall what a long, long space of 
time a year was when we were 
children? On a New Year's Day, 
if we looked forward — and no 
135 



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Ube Joyful %ifc. 



rft 



child ever looks backward — the 
future was lost in dim and shroud- 
ing mists. Now twelve months 
is a little flitting period, which 
makes one think of the simile of 
a bird flying through a lighted 
hall, from blackness to black- 
ness/' 

^^Well/' I answered, '^I grant 
that the seasons do glide faster 
with one than of old, but I think 
it is simply because I have so 
much to do, and so many com- 
plex interests. When every day 
is filled to the brim and the days 
weave themselves into weeks, the 
weeks into months, and the 
months into years, with the rap- 
idity of the unresting loom, what 
is one to do? Of course, your 
years and mine slip quickly away. 
136 




/VT 



<.j:^ 




Mj K\ 



fancy, however, those to 
whom the progress of time is slow 
enough, even in old age. The 
man who was once in the midst of 
affairs, but on whom a creeping 
paralysis has set its fettering hand; 
the woman chained to her bed by 
a cruelly torturing malady; the 
prisoner in his cell; the stranger 
lonely among strangers, may not 
find the years so swift. Part of 
the restlessness which makes some 
old people so unhappy is no doubt 
due to the fact that their empty 
days have grown slow and drag- 
ging, that there is no flavor left 
for them in life's cup. People 
in the shadow of grief always suffer 
from the tedium of the days. 
The mourner's days move at a 
snail^s pace.'' 

137 





Ube Joyful Xif e. 




Miriam thought this was true, 
and for a while we were silent. 
You may be silent with an in- 
timate friend, and the need to be 
entertaining of set purpose is non- 
existent between those whose 
mutual understanding is flawless. 

After a while she said, ^^ An- 
other year is coming. Are you 
making any new departures, any 
new resolves? There is something 
attractive about turning the fresh 
page, isn't there?'' 

^^With Susan Coolidge, I have 
long felt that every day is a fresh 
beginning, and I have laid aside 
the habit, if I ever had it, of cele- 
brating the new year as a special 
place for good resolutions. I do 
like, though, to signalize it by some 
particular pleasure, to meet my 
138 





a IRew l^ear /IDebitatfon. 



P|) 






friends and kinsfolk then, and 
to exchange greetings and good 
wishes with them. If the cal- 
endar did nothing else, it would 
remind us that the chances for 
making our beloved ones happy 
are lessening, and that we ought 
to avail ourselves of every coming 
opportunity to scatter sunshine 
on the pathway of all we meet.'^ 

^^But/' persisted Miriam, ^^you 
would not influence others to pass 
by a New Yearns milestone with- 
out some effort to start anew in 
the Christian race, would you? 
Suppose you were talking to a 
crowd of students, is there nothing 
you could suggest as very apposite 
to them at such a time?^^ 

^^For one thing,'' I said, ^^I 
would counsel all who have never 
139 



^;^. 




^%'U 



Ube Joyful Xffe. 



yet done it, to begin on January 
first a daily definite study of the 
Bible. There is a good deal of 
Bible study just now, it is true, 
but also, in hundreds of Christian 
homes, and by thousands of young 
men and women, the Bible is a 
neglected book. The young peo- 
ple who are familiar with the 
Scriptures are not too numerous 
— those I mean who can turn at 
an instant's call, without hesita- 
tion or embarrassment, to any 
reference text in the prophets, the 
psalms, or the New Testament. 
We live in an age of much literary 
enterprise, when the printing-press 
scatters new books as the forest 
trees scatter leaves in the autumn ; 
when newspapers are multitudin- 
ous, and every man, woman and 
140 



Y'/i 



inr 



^/'V 



H IRew Kear /IDebftation* 

child reads something. That 
many otherwise Hberally educated 
men and women do not know the 
Scriptures, even as Hterature, is a 
misfortune, for they are a treasury 
of noble words in many incom- 
parable styles. And, by search- 
ing them, those who would obtain 
eternal life still are rewarded by the 
Divine Author. Yes, I wish I could 
urge the young people of our land, 
wherever they are, to begin to read 
the Bible daily, to read it through 
in course, or to read it for its poetry, 
history, and philosophy. I wish 
they would read it for the life of the 
Master. On a shelf in my library 
are many lives of Christ, but none 
equals, none approaches, the life 
so simply revealed in the gospels 
of the four evangelists.'^ 
141 




i^^^^^^^i2^a 



Ube 5oBful Xffe. 



^^[^^^^^S^^^'^-'S'.'^i^^^^ 




^^What besides the Bible/' said 
Miriam, ^Vould you suggest for 
the reading of a bright, ambitious 
boy, or of a girl who had her life 
before her?'' 

^^ My preference is strongly for a 
biography over most other books, 
but, in a general way, I would tell 
a young reader to choose what was 
most inviting, only securing a 
little regular time every day for 
some thoughtful reading. Some 
like essays, many more enjoy 
stories, and we get the most profit, 
I think, when our reading is not 
perfunctory, but is pleasurable 
and recreative. Libraries abound, 
and there is no reason why any- 
body should starve when the table 
for the mind is so free and so 
abundantly spread." 




H mew l^ear /»e&(tatfom 




^^! 



This talk of ours was resumed 
on another occasion when Miriam 
and I were not alone. A clever 
young girl was with us, and she 
had her opinion and expressed 
it very earnestly. 

^^I know/^ she said, ^^what 
people of my age need, and that 
is agreeable companionship. We 
are restless and dissatisfied unless 
we are in the midst of things. I 
would tell every one I knew, espe- 
cially if she or he happened to 
be a little blue, as young people 
often are, to get to work, not 
merely in wage -earning work, 
though for many that is a necessity 
and to some a resource and duty, 
but to join a Christian Endeavor 
Society, or an Ep worth League, 
or the King's Daughters, or some 
143 





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<S)rrrr-^r— = 





Ubc Joi^ful Xife. 



3s::^^e^ 



brotherhood, or friendly society, 
and give to it the best one could. 
A good time to join the procession 
of Christian workers is surely the 
New Year. And, if one is already 
in, but has been a laggard or un- 
faithful, may there not be wisdom 
in reforming, shaking off sloth 
and beginning over with enthu- 
siasm? I do think young people 
should assist their pastors more 
than they do, and what better 
season for a start than at this 
very time? Those who have 
leisure could help him in making 
calls on the sick or the lonely; 
others could enter the Sunday- 
school.'^ 

So spoke Caroline, and we older 
women agreed with her. Only 
as we give in this world do we get 
144 



m 



v%^, 



/'^/<^r 



H Mew l^ear /IDe&ftation* 



good. I have been reading ine 
life of a great missionary, Verbeck 
of Japan, and it has been borne 
into my soul that the only life 
worth living is the life of Christian 
love. It may be spent, as the 
foreign missionary's is, under a 
distant sky, as the home mis- 
sionary's and colporter's, in the 
waste places of our own great 
land, as the minister's in his 
parish, as the mother's in her 
household, but if it be a life after 
the fair Christ-pattern, it will be 
a life poured out for others, and 
therefore very blessed. 

Friends, methinks we stand in 
the portal of another year. God 
gives us more days, more weeks, 
how many or how few we know 
not, but they are sent straight 
145 



Ube 5oi?ful %ifc. 



from heaven, and we are to use 
them for him. Have we made 
mistakes? It is not too late to 
rectify them. Have we committed 
sin? We may find cleansing in 
the fountain where all uncleanli- 
ness is washed away. Have we 
been discouraged? ^^As thy days, 
thy strength shall be/^ is the 
word of the Lord to our weariness 
and faintness. As we wait, not 
knowing what shall be on the 
morrow, we may fill the measure 
of to-day with contentment, sur- 
render and sweetness. And from 
the sky the everlasting Father, 
speaking to our need, says, ^Cer- 
tainly I will be with thee!'^ 

This meditation grows too long. 
But I have one more practical 
suggestion, and that concerns the 

146 



f^r^. 



LiM 



H Bew 35eat /IDe&ftatlon* 




storing of the memory, as a hive 
with honey, with worth-while 
things to have and to hold. You 
would find it much to your profit, 
dear reader, to study by heart 
at least one verse of Scripture 
every day in the year, to learn a 
few noble hymns, and to fix in 
your minds some fine strong 
thoughts of great writers. Mem- 
ory may be a good servant, if 
trained, not only in early, but 
in later days. 



147 




Ifncompatibilit^. 




AMONG the greatest of our 
smaller trials, if the para- 
dox may be pardoned, must 
be reckoned incompatibility. To 
live in daily contact with some one 
whose ideas are in jarring contrast 
with your own, to endure the moods 
and tempers of a person who rasps 
you by voice and emphasis to the 
point of a continual irritation, is 
to wear the medieval hair-shirt, 
and endure the medieval scourge. 
A sweet-faced serene saint of God, 
whose way in life lies through the 
149 



z?^ 



]imi 



Ube Joyful %iU. 



?^^S^i:^t^ 



drudgery of a New England kit- 
chen, once confided to me, in a 
moment of supreme dishearten- 
ment, that there were times when 
she longed for the rest of the grave, 
smiling, as she added, '^I am per- 
fectly worn out by the compan- 
ionship of Aunt Tabitha; yet she is 
the salt of the earth /^ Good 
people may be intensely uncom- 
fortable neighbors, and an excel- 
lent woman prove herself as wear- 
ing to her family as a mustard 
plaster next the skin, burning, 
blistering and unbearable even 
by the help of patience. There 
are kind souls in this world who 
defeat their own impulses by per- 
forming unselfish actions in a tact- 
less and disagreeable fashion, 
which cannot but provoke an- 
150 



tM 



/'^r^/ 



UncompatfbiUti?* 



tagonism; and there are persons 
admirable in their integrity and 
their regard for principle, who, 
nevertheless, are instruments of 
unceasing discipline to their fami- 
lies. As a rule such people are 
calmly oblivious to their personal 
defects, and tranquilly ready to 
throw the blame of whatever 
misery follow^s in their wake on 
the shoulders of others. They 
are never in the wrong. Their 
ill-temper is, in their own eyes, 
righteous indignation, and their 
contrariness, devotion to pro- 
priety; yet the sum of much 
household cheerfulness is sadly 
lowered because of the absence 
from the home of the element of 
congeniality, and the necessity 
therein of continual repression, 
151 




T\<^- 







self-denial and forbearance on one 
side. 

I am led to this special line 
of thought by the dilemma of 
a young couple who find it their 
duty to admit to their new home 
a relative whose claim upon them 
is two-fold: she is too feeble to 
support herself, and, in a wide 
circle of kindred, nobody else will 
have her. The nephew who feels 
called upon to give her the shelter 
of his roof is quite aware that her 
presence will be a trial to his wife, 
yet he sees no other way in the 
matter, for Great-Aunt Nancy 
is old, dependent and fretful, and 
she absolutely refuses to be sup- 
ported among strangers. 

The bride naturally regrets that 
in her new home, which she had 
152 



^^^^^^^^^^^^w^^wu 



UncompattbiUt^* 



^3^^-T< 



hoped to make a bit of Eden, 
there is to be an inmate whose 
all-pervading influence will rob 
it of much of its charm. But she 
is bravely making up her mind 
to the inevitable. She has set 
aside a sunny chamber for the old 
lady, and has resolved to make 
the best of things, since Jack is 
sure that there is no other course 
to be taken. 

The man of the house, going to 
business daily, escapes much of 
the unpleasant friction which is 
the accompaniment of his wife's 
life, when an uncongenial person 
is with her from dawn to bed- 
time. If, however, she sees the 
thing clearly, and accepts it brave- 
ly, haK the battle is won. A 
nettle grasped firmly in the hand 
153 



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does not prick and wound as 
much as one that is carelessly 
encountered. 

I have little credence to give 
to the theory that hateful old 
people are the product of un- 
toward circumstances. Froward- 
ness of temper probably began 
in the days of youth, and an 
uncurbed unchecked selfishness 
years ago indulged and fostered, 
is at the root of the elderly 
perversity. One meets sweet old 
people every day, people who 
have mellowed and ripened under 
the storms of life, and who have 
gained beauty of soul and face 
as they have borne privation, 
anxiety and suffering. Nothing 
from without ever makes man 
or woman peaceful, or the oppo- 
154 



f^rkii 



W>rmi 



site. It is the heart hfe that tells 
on the behavior. When a young 
woman is fretful, unreasonable 
and capricious, when she sees only 
her own point of view, and is 
disposed to consider herself before 
others in the little as in the large 
occasions of home life, she is 
surely stepping forward on that 
road which leads straight to a med- 
dlesome, interfering and dreaded 
old age. 

When it can be managed, young 
people should strain every nerve 
to begin their united lives without 
the presence of any third person. 
They are far better by themselves, 
especially in the early years when 
more or less adjustment must be 
taking place . To their future, their 
present is ministering, and if no 
155 






t'J^]-. : 



WMl 



Ube SoBful %ifc. 



one is near to comment on their 
mistakes, or to take sides if they 
happen to disagree, their chances 
of harmony are increased. Still 
it is now and then a plain duty 
to widen the home and take into 
its sanctuary another inmate who 
may and may not be an addition 
to the home's stock of peace. 

A lady, who was to her finger- 
tips a gentlewoman, delicate, 
dainty, and accustomed to a quiet 
elegance of routine in her house- 
keeping, some time ago found it 
her clearly indicated obligation 
to admit beneath her roof a group 
of young people whose home had 
been swept away by a flood. Into 
her fair domain they trooped like 
the vandals who invaded Rome. 
They were boisterous as a March 
156 



i> 



g?/ 



(1 



%.\ 



IFncompatfbfUts* 

wind, untrained in refinement, 
and utterly ungracious and un- 
thankful, but they had to be 
endured for a while. The trial 
was no slight one, though, as the 
lady said, it was not to be men- 
tioned in the same day with 
incurable disease, or a fire, or a 
death in the family. 

Our way of bearing such attacks 
upon our equanimity shows of 
what stuff we are made. It reveals 
our philosophy or our lack of it; 
yes, we may go a step further and 
say that it shows our Christian 
character, or our imperfect faith. 
If it be God^s will that we are to 
dwell with those who seem to us 
incompatible with our peace, God 
can give us grace for this as for any 
other trial. 

157 




m 



^r^c 



We may take to our souls this 
great comfort : that we never have 
to make provision for the whole 
journey, but merely for one step 
at a time. The miracle of the 
daily manna is ever repeated in 
the commonplace lives of modern 
Christians. Forecasting a weary 
monotonous stretch of the road, 
we wonder how we are ever to 
accomplish the distance between 
the milestones. But the Lord has 
never bidden us to worry and 
waste our strength in this effort. 
He has simply ordered us to go 
forward, and has said that he will 
give us grace in time of need. 
^^If thy presence go not with us, 
carry us not up hence,'' we may 
pray, awaiting the answer that 
will come ringing from the 
158 



cwar 



MW 



^%4 



mm 



skies: ^^ Certainly, I will be with 
thee/' 

People who are bad company 
for others are bad company for 
themselves. Once in a while is 
it not a good plan to be very faith- 
ful in our self-examination? Are 
we guiltless in our Lord's sight 
so far as our intercourse with 
others is concerned? Are we 
gentle, tolerant, cheerful, amia- 
ble and self-controlled? In some 
rooms there hangs upon the wall 
an illuminated card bearing this 
legend: ^ Christ is the head of 
this house; the invisible guest at 
every meal; the unseen listener 
to every conversation.'' We may 
not suspend this card from a peg 
in the chamber or the dining-room, 
but the sentiment, the thought, 
159 




nVN 



r<-^y 



Ube Joyful Xffe. 



should be ever with us. And if, 
indeed, Christ Jesus is with us, 
and we hve as in his immediate 
sight, we shall not often be cross 
with children, impatient with 
young people, exacting with serv- 
ants, or unfaithful in the per- 
formance of our tasks. 

The really brave soul does not 
waste time in thinking very much 
about itself, and is far from 
wasting its strength in self-pity 
for imaginary wounds and bruises. 

In the least lovable nature there 
w^^W\) is something to love, if it can 
only be found. Human beings 
are very complex, and nobody is 
repellent all through and to all 
advances. A little child may find 
the key that unlocks the sealed 
tenderness in an aged heart. If 
160 





Ilncompatibtlits. 






you can use but the right sesame, 
you may open the most closely 
barred door. A woman known 
to me was the dread of three 
generations for her coldness, 
moroseness and general dissatis- 
faction with her little world and 
with the kith and kin whom she 
affected to despise. But in her 
later life there was thrown upon 
her the care of a helpless family 
of motherless children, and she 
amazed all who knew her by fi- 
delity, kindness and self-forget- 
fulness in the new role. 

By living as in the presence of 
Christ we shall gather strength 
for any emergency, and be armed 
against needless suffering and sor- 
row. Like Brother Lawrence, 
that humble monk of a by-gone 
161 



Ube 5osf ul Xffe* 



m 



century, like Santa Teresa, like 
Elizabeth of Hungary, like John 
and Paul, and 'Hhe elect lady,'' 
and like thousands unnamed and 
unchronicled who have, through 
faith, subdued kingdoms and 
wrought righteousness, let us live 
always, finding our Lord in every 
hour and in every action. For 
nothing comes by chance. Our 
lives are a plan of God. If to 
any of us smooth things are not 
appointed, it is because God sees 
that we need rough things. By 
whatever wind God sends, the 
Christian's boat is sailing to the 
port of Peace. 

A man that hath friends must 

show himself friendly. In the chill 

days of March there are blasts 

as rigorous as ever blew from the 

162 



.11 



Uncompatibflft?* 



'^i 



frozen north; but there are moods 
of sunshine too, and sweet breezes 
that coax the early flowers into 
bloom, and allure the bluebirds 
from the thicket, and give the 
land a first pledge of a coming 
April and May. Friendliness is 
like the sunbeam that thaws the 
icicle. The most unsympathetic 
temperament melts before the 
magic of persistent kindness. 

If any of us is carrying the sort 
of burden which God has given us, 
and which is the heavier because 
it has to do with the closeness of 
earthly relations and the intima- 
cies of the fireside, let him not try 
to cast it off, but rather remem- 
ber the injunction, ^^Bear ye one 
another's burdens, and so fulfil the 
law of Christ.'^ 

163 




Ube Joyful %ifc. 



The great Duke of Marlborough 
had a wife whom he adored, but 
who was a beautiful termagant. 
He bore her caprices, her furies, 
her frequent gusts of unreason, 
with a gentleness which was re- 
markable in one who was accus- 
tomed to receive deference and to 
be obeyed when he commanded. 
One day, that she might vex her 
husband, the Duchess cut off her 
beautiful hair, which he was ac- 
customed to caress, and left it 
lying where his eyes must fall 
upon it. But her intention missed 
its aim. To the day of his death 
this man of iron self-control never 
referred to the incident, never 
reproached her, never seemed to 
see what she had done. The 
shorn tresses grew to their former 
1Q4 



IFncompatibiltt^* 



length without a word from him. 
But after his death, among his 
precious things in a cabinet under 
lock and key, those who survived 
him found the glory of her hair 
as he had gathered it up and laid 
it away. Incompatibility of tem- 
perament had not been enough 
to make discord in a union where 
one was invincibly patient and 
unconquerably loving. 

One generation passeth away, 
and another generation cometh. 
Each respects the errors of the 
preceding, and each may derive 
profit from the successes of the 
preceding. In the peace that 
passeth understanding, no matter 
what the outside perturbations, 
we may all be kept if we but ask 
for guidance and trust in God. 
165 



mm. 




m 



EASTER is the coronation of 
the Christian year. As we 
mount the golden stairway 
of love and faith which leads us to 
the contemplation of our Lord's 
resurrection, we realize our right to 
be called the children of God. As 
Christ laid down his life to take 
it again, so we, falling asleep in him, 
shall awaken to newness of life. 
To death every believer may smile 
a welcome, for death but opens 
for us the door into the house of 
the Father, where is fulness of 
167 



~:^^i£j 



Ube ?OBfttl %lf e* 



;3r<^^ 



joy, and we go no more out 
forever. 

I wonder whether we, as Chris- 
tians, appreciate the comforts 
that Easter Day brings to us, or 
care, as we should, for its promise 
and its pledge of the eternity 
which is to be ^^conjubilant with 
song/' Surely in the deep mean- 
ing of Easter there should be for 
us an abiding peace. We should 
learn a nobler trust. Our atti- 
tude toward the next life should 
be more confidant, less shrinking, 
more serene, and when our loved 
ones go we should follow them with 
some mingling of gladness in their 
felicity to sweeten the loneliness 
of their absence. 

One day a woman, whose whole 
life was a beatitude, sat at her 
168 



5! 



desk, happy in her work, till four 
o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. 
At the same hour the next day 
she was not very well, and that 
night she slept and drifted into 
a state of unconsciousness from 
which she did not waken here. 
When she awoke she was with 
God. Her spirit had heard the 
royal summons, ^^ Daughter, come 
home,'' and from the earthly 
hearth she loved she went, without 
pain, without weariness or weak- 
ness, straight to the blissful abode 
above. There must have been a 
glad surprise for that redeemed one 
when she found herself in the 
heavenly mansions. People pray 
to be delivered from sudden death, 
as if any experience could be more 
ecstatic for the Christian than just 
169 








i^^^^^^^^^S 



trbe 3oi?fuI Xffc, 



i 



that swift transition from one state 
of being to another. Nothing but 
joy for one who thus goes home, 
though there must be shock to 
those who remain behind. 

Not of death do we think at 
Easter so much as of fulness 
of Hfe. All winter we have 
had bare branches and silent 
woodS; gardens stripped, fields 
brown and sere. But the time 
of the singing of birds has come. 
The orchards are soon to be gay 
with blossoms. Nature, appar- 
ently languid and idle during the 
period of storm and cold, has 
been steadily at work in her 
potential way for months, and 
soon the world will be waving 
and fragrant with summer again. 
In the eagerness of healthful child- 
170 





hood, who does not participate 
in these happy hours; who is not 
aware of a thrill of rapture as he 
listens to the song of the robins, 
or smells the bloom of the lilacs? 
Spring has a charm to restore lost 
childhood and make the old young 
once more. Every springtide wit- 
nesses this miracle wrought anew 
in you and me. 

By the door of an old farm- 
house in Connecticut there grows 
a white lilac bush, lifting its 
perfumed plumes in the spring 
air, sturdy and strong whatever 
winds may blow. The people who 
planted it went to heaven many 
a long year ago, and the gray- 
haired couple who occupied the 
house when last I saw it are safe 
amid the fadeless gardens of Jeru- 
171 



»!)) 






iM 



MV^ 



y 



Ube Joyful Xff e^ 



salem that is above. Strangers 
are there now, and the httle flaxen- 
haired brood of an aUen race play 
around the old threshold. But 
the same flowers come back year 
by year, preaching the same sweet 
sermon of the changeless faithful- 
ness of our God. When the last 
echo of the Easter music has 
melted away into space, when 
the Easter garlands are withered, 
and from the mount of our Easter 
exaltation we descend to the val- 
leys and the commonplaces of our 
daily lives, let this be our cease- 
less joy: that God is ever with us. 
Always the same gospel ! He who, 
year in and year out, sends the 
shower and the sunbeam, dresses 
highway and byway with beauty, 
from the dogwood to the golden- 
172 



jr^i-^' 



Hfter^Easter /IDusings* 



rod, from the green leaf to the 
brown, will not forget the least 
of us. His goodness is ever new; 
his kindness always outpoured, 
his tenderness greater than our 
uttermost demand, and the same 
spring time over and over is sent 
by the same dear Lord and Father. 
In the old days of the Bible 
there were those who dwelt with 
Jehovah as we seldom do in our 
hurrying modern life. Abraham 
was ^Hhe friend of God,'' and 
Enoch habitually ^^ walked with 
God,'' and we too, in our railway 
trains and at our work, may have 
glimpses of the unseen, may walk 
with God, if we seek him amid the 
details of our avocation and take 
time to look upward. What a 
different world this might be for 
173 



■^■^■iski 




Zbc Joyful Xffe 

some of us if we were ever alert 
to hear the voice of God; if amid 
the perturbations and disturbances 
of our days we walked in such 
sympathy with him that our souls 
would be tranquil, whatever came 
to us. 

^' Calm me, my God, and keep me calm, 
Soft resting on thy breast,'^ 

should be the prayer of every one 
who walks with God. 

All sorts of human experiences 
militate in our time with the con- 
templative spirit which dwells 
apart and muses of heavenly 
things. Many a Christian has a 
hard time to get along because 
of limited means. Children to 
be fed, clothed, and educated; 
fuel to buy, rent to pay, some- 
thing to be provided for the 
174 













}^M 



« 



future; it takes the whole of the 
man's time and strength, or the 
woman's faith and hope to carry 
the burdens of responsibihty and 
ordinary work. If rehgion is good 
for anything, it is good for sus- 
taining the heavy-laden. Not on 
Sundays only, with their blessed 
intervals of peace, but on every 
week day the thought of God 
should bring a breath of balm, the 
presence of Christ should make 
of the plainest loaf and the scan- 
tiest cup a feast. Surely it is not 
only of the Sabbath that looking 
back we may say, ^^He brought 
me into his banqueting-house and 
his banner over me was love.'' 

Among the after-Easter sugges- 
tions which we cannot forego is 
one that has to do with the mourn- 
175 




;^^ 




XCbe Joyful %ifc. 



ing of Christians. When from a 
household devoted to this world 
f/jjj and its pleasures and ambitions 
one member goes, there may well 
be gloom that is unrelieved, for 
where is there room for hope of 
reunion? But if the child, the 
husband, the loved one, is taken 
to Christj the Christian has the 
sure expectation that in a little 
while there will be a blithe meet- 
ing to compensate for the sad 
parting. Not perhaps for a longer 
time than often intervenes in this 
world, are we divided from those 
who pass onward, since we never 
know how soon the summons home 
may come for us. That other life 
that seems so distant, may be 
near, and always 

It's coming, coining nearer, 
That lovely land unseen, 
176 



"3^ 



' ^ >v4 



Hfter*Ba0ter /iDusfngs. 




It^s shores are growing clearer, 
Though mists lie dark between. 

Habitually to think on heaven 
as the land of the living, and of 
our dead as occupied there in 
loving service, should help us 
to bear our present bereavements 
with cheerfulness that conquers 
grief and makes resignation dig- 
nified and tranquil. 

Lent, formerly observed only 
by certain sects in the church, is 
gradually so winning the hearts 
of Christians of every name, that 
many quietly keep it as a period 
when they may draw nearer to 
their Master than in the ordinary 
activities of time. A season of 
retirement now and then is worth 
while for any one's seeking who 
wishes to grow in grace. The 
177 




~lsk / ^Ji^iJ 



Ube Joyful %itc. 



forty-days^ fast, though only par- 
tial as regards self-denial in food 
and drink, may be profitably kept 
by abstaining from some of the 
ordinary social diversions, and by 
giving larger time than usual to 
prayer and scripture reading. 
Would we know the mind of God, 
let us search the Scriptures which 
are able to make us wise unto 
salvation. 

^^My friend,'^ said a good woman 
meeting another on the street, 
^^I want you to have a richer 
benediction from above than you 
ever have had.'^ The salutation 
was uncommon. The one who 
gave it had been herself uplifted 
by a season of communion with the 
Most High, it being her custom 
now and then to spend a day in 
178 



ro;r 



^^^m 



Hftec«»£astec /Dusiuds. 




her closet, giving the hours to 
prayer from morn till eve. 

One day or forty days, let us 
who have shared the Easter 
gladness give from time to time 
a special interval which shall be 
consecrated to special thought, 
prayer and study. 

Every Christian Sabbath is a 
commemoration of the resurrec- 
tion. Every time the bells call 
us to church they call us to wor- 
ship the living Christ, the Lord who 
was not chained of death but in 
triumph bro'ke its bonds. Enter- 
ing the sanctuary we show that 
we are followers of the risen one. 

The apostles so near the time 
when the Lord was crucified, and 
so happy in their personal knowl- 
edge of him before he ascended 
179 







into heaven, continually preached 
the resurrection. The New Tes- 
tament is full of the melody 
of their triumphant faith. We, 
nearer to the day of his ultimate 
triumph over men than they, 
should have an equally regnant 
faith. Our daily life and con- 
versation should be set to the lofty 
chorals of victory, and every Sab- 
bath should bring to us an added 
sense of joy, a farther-reaching 
glimpse into the unseen. 

How white are the flowers of 
Easter, lily, azalea, heather, rose; 
how stainless are the blossoms, 
we choose for our churches, our 
homes, and our festivals at this 
flood-tide of the spring. I re- 
member an after-Easter wedding 
in a stately church ; the flowers, the 
180 




Hfter^JEaster /Dusfngs* 



bride's dress, the white ribbons, 
all typical of spotless purity. We 
have such associations, all of us, hy-"'-^^ 
and though we admit gorgeousness ,y^:^ 
of color, yet the white tone pre- 
dominates in our Easter adornings. 
The suggestion is of robes washed 
white, of sins removed and blotted 
out, of the garments the redeemed 
shall wear in Paradise. 

When the Easter chorals cease, 

When the Easter flowers fade ; 
Keep us still in perfect peace 

In the sunbeam, in the shade: 
Grant us, Lord, the Easter love, 

Give us. Lord, the Easter hope, ^ 

Till we reach the realm above, A)^^- 

And the crystal portals ope. 

Not more knowledge, but more 

love, more child-like simplicity, 

more spontaneity in our service, 

are the great necessities of the 

181 



\^^^ 



r^<^/ 



^^^^^^^ 



M 



Zbc 5oi5tul Xff e* 



Christian life to-day. Is Christ 
real to you, dear friend? Do 
you feel that you love him so that 
life lacking him would be strangely 
shorn of the beauty, of interest, 
and of enthusiasm? Do you say 
in the hush of the twilight, in the 
heat of the noon, when the great 
moon hangs golden on the horizon, 
or the morning tints the east, 
^^My beloved is mine, and I am 
his,'^ ^^I am my beloved ^s, and my 
beloved is mine/^ If so, you 
may carry with you everywhere 
and always a continual Easter 
in your heart and life. 




w 



HEN mother is blue, I 
just put on my hat 
and run away. It 
takes all the sunshine out of the 
house, and I can't stand it/' 

The speaker was a girl of twenty, 
with an apple-blossom face and 
merry eyes. One saw at a glance 
that her life had been free from 
the pressure of much care, just as 
one read between the lines, in 
looking at her mother's calm coun- 
tenance, that the elder woman 
had fought a long battle with ad- 
183 



Ail 







versities of various kinds. In that 
faded face the eyes may once have 
been merry, but they had grown 
thoughtful; and it was hard to 
beheve that the matron had ever 
been reproved in her youth for 
indiscreet and immoderate hilar- 
ity. Yet, as she smiled at her 
daughter's impulsive speech, she 
said, 

^^I was once as gay as Gertrude 
ever is. In fact, I was noted for 
my irrepressible spirits. The dis- 
cipline of experience has toned 
me down, but I am almost always 
cheerful. '^ 

^^Yes, indeed, '^ said the daugh- 
ter, patting her mother's cheek, 
^^ and that is why I am so disturbed 
when she is out of sorts, the dear 
brave lady. I feel as if the bottom 
184 



Mben /Hiotber is Blue* 



has dropped out of our scheme of 
Hving when mother gives up and 
folds her hands in melancholy/^ 
I went on my way with a new 
appreciation of the mother's value 
to a home. Motherhood implies 
so much, must mean so much in 
every environment, and in our 
households what do we not expect 
from her who is at the helm? She 
manages the domestic economy, 
often doing most if not all of the 
work with her own hands. She 
buys the material for the chil- 
dren's clothing, cuts it out and 
makes it. The weekly mending 
and darning for an ordinary fam- 
ily is a large and onerous task, 
and in a majority of instances 
the mother undertakes and carries 
it on without assistance. When 
185 



Y^ 



^^' 



Zbc Jopful Xife* 



a maid is kept, or where there 
are several servants, the routine 
still demands the continual super- 
vision of the lady of the house, 
an old-fashioned term which I 
like for its suggestiveness and de- 
scriptive character. It is she who 
plans and projects, who caters and 
provides against usual or unusual 
needs, who frequently makes the 
finer desserts, and on whom the 
comfort of her circle depends. 

Mother is the confidante of the 
children, who bring to her their 
little daily troubles and trials, 
tell her of their school difficulties 
and ask her help at evening when 
they study the lessons for the 
next day. As her sons and daugh- 
ters grow up, they more than ever 
need her counsel and support; 
186 



m 



m 



more than ever lay their burdens 
at her feet, and receive from her 
wise and tender hands maxims 
and bits of advice as indispensable 
as daily bread. 

A father may throughout the 
years of their opening lives show 
indifference, aversion or positive 
hostility to religion, yet if his 
children have a pious and praying 
mother, she may draw them one 
by one into the kingdom. A 
Christian mother, one who lives 
close to God, is almost invincible 
against the darts of Satan, and 
opposes an armor of proof that 
throws off his poisoned arrows 
and acts as a shield for her loved 
ones. God has ordained that 
mothers shall be influential be- 
yond others. They have the first 
187 






pg^^^^s^^^^^ 



Ube 3oi?f ul Xfte* 



chance. The impressions they 
make are the most enduring. I 
would not underrate nor diminish 
the potency of Christian father- 
hood; but men are less with their 
families in the home^ and less 
able to lay line upon line and 
precept upon precept in their 
children's training, than are 
women. No Christian mother 
should ever despair of the ultimate 
safety, the conversion, and the 
sanctification of those whom as 
little ones she brought to the 
Lord in continual, reverent and 
humble faith. 

But, with everything they have 
to do, mothers sometimes grow 
weary. Health fails, trials thick- 
en, anxieties crush. The most 
elastic nature is not strong 
188 



y:^^ 




^^^ 



Wbcn /Dotbct is Blue* 



M 



enough to cope with never-ceasing 
financial stress. Just a little more 
money in many an instance would 
so ease the machinery of the home, 
so lessen the load, so brighten 
the life, that the mother would 
live longer, be less irritable, be 
freed from nervousness, and do 
her best as she is never able to do, 
handicapped by limited means. 
Mother is ^^blue,^^ because mother 
is worn out. Mother is ^^blue'^ 
because the rose-light of hope 
has turned to dull gray ash and 
withered brown in her pathway. 
The happy young things about 
her, effervescing with vivacity, 
overflowing with energy, do not 
comprehend mother ^s despondency 
for two reasons: one is that they 
are so well and so strong that 
189 




xrbe Joyful Xffe^ 



they have not yet learned sym- 
pathy with ill health and feeble- 
ness, and the other that they are 
often in the dark as to the causes 
of maternal solicitude. With a 
mistaken kindness parents often 
keep their trials to themselves 
and refuse to let young people 
share them. The life of the home 
goes on with ^^a flowing sail/^ 
nobody is warned of reefs and 
shoals, and not until a crash 
comes are any of the family except 
the overwrought parents aware 
that there were danger signals 
which ought to have been heeded. 
^^I don't want to spoil young 
lives/' says the mother. 

In family life reciprocity should 
rule. With a weakness that has 
its root in purity and unselfishness 
190 



<AL 



M 



:::^y^^ 



XRaben /Rotber is 3Blue* 



parents overbrood their children 
long after the latter have out- 
grown the necessity. For ex- 
ample, a man was struggling in 
deep waters in a period of life 
when his first strength was spent, 
middle age with its encroach- 
ments had arrived, and pecuni- 
arily he had all to do that he 
could possibly attempt, in order 
to save his credit and keep himself 
from bankruptcy. His situation 
was known to a friend, who met 
him one day accompanied by a 
young and very beautiful girl, his 
eldest daughter. She was ur- 
gently pleading for the money 
to buy an expensive outfit for a 
smnmer jaunt, and she continued 
her petitions, half in banter, made 
as a cover for a very evident 
191 



TC 




sober seriousness of intention 
and desire. The father's predica- 
ment was that of an indulgent 
man who had never denied his 
child a request that it was in his 
power to grant. He tried to say 
No^ but yielded in the end, gave 
the daughter her way, and plunged 
himself into more tangled difficul- 
ties. ^^I never saw anything so 
"^l^^ cruel as that young girPs beha- 
vior/^ was the friend's comment; 
^^nor so inane as that of her 
father. He seemed to me pitiably 
weak and foolish.'' 

In such a situation, complete 
confidence would do much to 
render impossible so unhappy an 
incident. Parents ought to let 
sons and daughters know the 
family resources, and to some 
192 



m 




iU 



Wibcn /iDotber is Bine. 




^^^^^^^^^ 



extent, at least by self-denial, 
allow them to share the family 
burdens. Mother would seldom 
be ^^blue'' if she were not unduly 
weighted with the heft of loads 
too great for her to bear. 

But when she is depressed, is 
it quite fair to run away and 
leave her to ^^dree her weird 
alone''? Sometimes this is what 
she needs, quiet, seclusion, no 
one, above all, to jar on her mood 
by untimely cheer, no one to 
antagonize her by reproaches. 
Often she does want and would 
respond to tenderness, to gentle- 
ness and loving caresses and 
speech. If she can be persuaded 
to get out of herself by any tact- 
ful ministries, her fit of the blues 
will soon pass away. 
193 




8M 





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T^^ 


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^ 


^ 


^ 


iKiiiiJi 


-oc^ 




7/ 


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^ 


'^ 




1^^^^^^^^^^^ 



Ubc JOBfttl %ifc* 



Mothers are very apt to lack 
variety in their Hves. The 
younger people have the vacations, 
mothers stay at home and cook 
and sew. There is a limit to 
woman's power of endurance. 
Over many a lowly mound, be- 
dewed by sorrowful mourners with 
honest tears, might be written, 
^^Died of monotony. '^ Change of 
scene is better than medicine for 
many a malady of body and mind. 
Once in a while a surprise might 
be carried out by which the youth 
of a tired woman should be re- 
newed. 

I recall a wedding I once at- 
tended, where the bride went from 
her father's house a slender lily- 
white girl, who had been brought 
up most delicately in an atmos- 



1 


/7* 1 Y I V \ r V 


194 


\ Vi/» If ) W 




« 


v^ 


Sr^==L,X® 


^.—^~^. — ^^ 


-i/nL./M 




^^S 



Mben Obotbct is 3BIue* 



phere of ease and luxury. She 
accompanied the husband of her 
choice into a rough, hard pioneer 
Ufe in a new State, and there, far 
from neighbors, from church privi- 
leges, or any social advantages, 
she spent many years. Children 
came rapidly. Her cares were 
numerous. She grew old and 
hard-handed and prematurely 
bent. At last there was received 
a pressing invitation from her 
girlhood^s home for her return 
there, to make a long and restful 
visit. True to her habit of self- 
abnegation, she was reluctant to 
consent, and desired to send a 
representative in her graceful 
Maud, the image of herself at 
seventeen, or her dimpled Agnes, 
a lovely child of fourteen. But 
195 



XCbe 5oi?ful %lfc. 



the children were firm. Mother 
must go, they said, and go she did. 
A new black silk gown for occa- 
sions was an unheard of extrava- 
gance, but it was procured; her 
wardrobe, though very simple, 
was augmented until she felt that 
it was presentable, and a shy, 
reserved, timid stranger, the 
woman who had forgotten the 
lightsomeness of her youth, ap- 
peared again in her olden place. 
At first she described her sen- 
sations by the homely comparison 
of a cat in a strange garret; but 
the unfamiliarity wore off, the 
rough hands smoothed, and she 
found that leisure had attractions 
of its own. People did not know 
her when she emerged from the 
enfolding solitude of her far off 
196 



Mben /Dotber is 3Blue* 



home, but bit by bit they dis- 
covered her to be the same that 
she used to be, and when, after 
three swift months had gone, 
she said that she must turn her 
face again to husband and chil- 
dren, it was predicted that they 
would hardly know her there. 
Nor was it quite the same mother 
who went home; it was a mother 
rested, refreshed, and wonder- 
fully rejuvenated; freed from the 
fettering grooves, and with new 
strength, new interest, and new 
delight in living. Such a new 
lease might be given to many a 
tired out mother. 

In every age, in every clime, 

the tendrils of the heart cling 

to the mother. Alike in the far 

East as in the newer West, she 

197 



UHM 



Ube Joyful Xife. 



^=^^=u^ 



takes precedence of others, with 
a singular and compeUing charm 
that has its origin in human nature. 
The one who nursed us in infancy 
must be dearest and nearest in 
one exquisite and intimate rela- 
tion until the end of her life. 
Mother love is sacred, is unexact- 
ing, is glorious. Though poets 
and painters prefer to dwell on 
the love of the young mother, 
holding in her arms the little 
child, in real life the mother grown 
old is just as beautiful and as 
fondly cherished as her youthful 
sister. King Solomon rose and 
seated his aged mother beside 
him on the throne when she 
entered his royal presence, type 
in this of every loyal son who does 
honor to a venerable mother. 
198 



iO\ 




xmiben flDotbcr is »luc^ 



The mother to whom we pay 
no homage is the one, rarely seen, 
whom Dickens drew under the 
name of Mrs. Skewton. Artificial, 
aping juvenility, heartless, fasten- 
ing her poor old hands in a frantic 
clutch on the fringes of fashion, 
her very existence a thing of 
shreds and patches, one can 
scarcely tolerate such a travesty 
of motherhood. One hopes it is 
a caricature; and yet to this 
degredation a woman may come 
in old age, if she live for this world 
only. 

" She has chosen the world and its 
Misnamed pleasure, 
She has chosen the world before 
Heaven's own treasure/' 

When mother is blue, or a little 
difficult, or set too much in her 
199 







own way quite to suit the head- 
strong wilfulness of the juniors, 
bear with her and set about bring- 
ing back her sunshine. Half the 
every-day sorrow of this earth 
would melt into thin air if we 
were all more anxious to give joy 
than to get it, to be rather love- 
worthy than grasping, and to 
make others happy whether or 
not we were happy ourselves. 






WRITING from his country 
home to a friend in 
town, Dr. OHver Wen- 
dell Holmes, then past his three 
score years and ten, said that on 
the preceding Sabbath he had at- 
tended the Baptist church in the 
village, adding, ^^ There is a little 
plant called Reverence, in a corner 
of'my souPs garden, which I like 
to have watered about once a 
week/^ 

The old-fashioned virtue of 
reverence, as it applies to our 



201 



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Ube 5ostttl Xffe^ 



daily life, is rather deprecated 
in our modern society. Shake- 
speare says, ^^Yet Reverence, that 
angel of the world, doth make 
distinction of place ^twixt high 
and low.'^ It is our boast now, 
however our observation chal- 
lenges its truth, that we have no 
distinctions of rank and class in 
America; that all men are born 
free and equal, and that they so 
remain. Certainly a vast change 
has come to pass since the New 
England parson, stately in his 
ruffled shirt and gold-headed cane, 
walked the streets of the seques- 
tered hamlet or the growing city, 
regarded, for the sake of his office 
and his personality, with veneration 
by young and old . In Hawthorne 's 
picturesque delineations of Puritan 
202 



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1 



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1 



life we find gentlewomen sump- 
tuously arrayed in velvet and 
lace, while matrons of lesser sta- 
tion were limited to stuff of in- 
ferior value and smaller cost. 
Apparently there were no heart- 
burnings over accepted facts of 
this kind; the cottage maiden 
and her good mother did not envy 
the splendors of the Squire's lady 
and the Judge's daughter. As a 
wave of revolt against class des- 
potism swept over France, and 
then a tempest of revolution set 
our colonies on the safe shore of 
national independence, many fine, 
sincere and noble things came 
in, but one brave, exquisite and 
lovely thing went out. Rever- 
ence, deference, recognition of the 
rights and privileges of courtesy 



203 



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XTbe Jopful %ifc. 



have been suffered to become 
almost obsolete in many quarters. 
It behooves us in these days to ask 
why, and once more to plant in 
our municipalities and our rural 
demesnes the blooming herb of 
reverence. 

We may begin by teaching the 
children to behave with politeness 
to their elders. I have heard 
my kinswomen of a former gener- 
ation tell how they stood in the 
presence of their fathers and 
mothers, unless they were re- 
quested to sit. Mrs. Sherwood 
and Frederika Bremer describe 
in their autobiographies a similar 
custom in their childish days. 
With the swing of the pendulum 
which has reversed so much of 
the old order, has, unfortunately, 
204 




^^^^^^^^^^^^ 




resulted a state of affairs in which, 
so to speak, parents stand and 
children sit. In far too many 
households, not in the least for 
their own happiness and well 
being, children are autocrats and 
arbiters, and do as they please 
in most of their relations to home 
and social life. Barbara and 
Timothy attend a Sabbath-school 
which does not belong to the 
parental church, and they go to 
church or stay away as they 
choose. Miriam calmly swings 
her little feet from the most 
luxurious chair in the room, while 
grandpapa contents himseK with 
anything he can find. Jacky 
plays soldier in the halls and tears 
madly up and down stairs, whoop- 
ing like an Indian brave, while 
205 






his mother struggles heroically 
with a nervous headache, but 
does not interfere with the boy, 
lest he shall not be happy in his 
home. The juvenile contingent 
owns the place, and, by a method 
of natural induction, learns that 
it is not worth while to show much 
attention to any one not of its 
especial world. 

Yet, whoever so trains or so 
mistrains a child that he or she 
reaches maturity without the 
spirit and the practice of deference 
to authority and consideration 
to others, does that child a most 
grievous wrong. No other charm 
of girlhood is so winsome, no 
attraction of youthful manhood 
so potential as that habit of 
courtesy which has its root in an 
206 




acknowledgment of the claims 
of infirmity, of weakness, of su- 
perior age and of honorable sta- 
tion. The truly well-bred person 
does not appear crude and ill- 
mannered, or arrogant and self- 
assertive in the presence of those 
whom he has the grace to treat 
with respect. 

The quaint, sweet word decorum 
is not lacking in fragrance; it 
perfumes, as with lavender from 
an old-time garden, the inter- 
course of society where reverence 
is still known and practised. 

A deep courtesy and a profound 
bow are, each in its place, more 
elegant than the curt nod which 
is far too common. The hat taken 
off the head, not merely touched 
or lifted, is a sign of fine breeding, 
207 



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more common among gentlemen 
of the courtly old school than 
among hurried men of the new. 
Even the disuse of the beautiful 
term ^4ady/' and the substitution 
in season and out of season, of 
the word ^^ woman/ ^ are significant 
of an epoch when manners are 
degenerate, and brusqueness is 
exalted above the sweet refine- 
ments of delicate ceremony. 

Every boy in the land should 
be drilled scrupulously by his 
mother in the accomplishment of 
lifting his hat or pulling off his 
cap when he says ^^good morn- 
ing'^ or '^good evening^' to people 
whom he meets. The lad should 
learn to stand bareheaded when 
talking to an older friend, certainly 
to a woman on the street, imless 

208 





the inclemency of the weather 
affords him an excuse for covering 
in her presence. Children on 
their way to school along country 
roads should be taught to acknowl- 
edge, with a pleasant bow, the 
presence of the people whom they 
pass. But these are merely ex- 
ternals of ordinary politeness 
which should never have been 
allowed to drop into desuetude. 
The true spirit of reverence ought 
to go deeper. Witness how often 
and how rudely children and young 
people interrupt their elders, how 
their concerns take precedence of 
every other interest, how they 
clamor for their way, and how 
easily they get it. I have seen 
a young and beautiful girl, the 
graduate of a famous college, lead 
209 



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Ube 3oi?ful Xife. 



the conversation in a drawing- 
room where were seated a group 
of people, several of whom were 
entitled to be called personages. 
That one had gained honors in the 
Civil War, that another was an 
eminent professional man, that 
two or three ladies were leaders in 
the benevolences of the city and 
State made no impression what- 
ever on the young woman, who 
simply chattered away, monopo- 
lizing the floor, herself her heroine. 
I know a girl who is plain as to 
feature and awkward as to form, 
whose opportunities have been 
few, and whose culture is narrow, 
yet she never goes anywhere or 
stays under any roof that her 
influence is not felt, as gentle as 
the south wind, as perfumed as 
210 



IReverencc* 



the violets breath. Her secret is 
simpUcity and deference. She 
forgets herself. She puts others 
first. The elderly lady, the old 
gentleman, in her code are en- 
titled to deference when they 
speak, and to the best seats by 
the hearth and at the board. She 
is beloved, because she gives much 
and requests little. 

I wish we might all pay more 
attention to our manners. Man- 
ner is the concrete expression of 
one^s nature and character; it is 
partly inherited; it is developed 
from within rather than acquired 
from without; but manners are 
the product of habits. They may 
be taught, they may be learned, 
they are somewhat affected by 
association, and they derive a 
211 



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great deal from imitation. No 
child should sit still when a lady, 
his mother or his aunt, or a friend 
of the family, enters the room. 
The child should rise and remain 
standing till the lady is seated. 
The same courtesy should be 
shown a gentleman with the dig- 
nity of years upon his head. No 
young man or woman should 
monopolize conversation or rudely 
contradict the expressions of an 
older person. Indeed rudeness is 
a quality to be ruled out of human 
intercourse as soon as possible. 
But we may rise to a higher 
plane. Dr. Holmes habitually 
went to church that he might 
cultivate the plant of reverence 
in his soul. How is it with men, 
old,' young and of middle age, who 
212 












IReverence* 



by scores and hundreds are absent 
from their pews every Sabbath, 
excusing themselves on this and 
the other plea of weariness or 
indifference, and letting wives and 
daughters and sisters worship 
alane? They lounge at home, 
reading secular books and news- 
papers, treating the house of God 
as though it were a useless inter- 
ruption of a man^s routine, and 
flinging defiance in the face of the 
Almighty, who has said, '^Ye 
shall keep my Sabbaths and rev- 
erence my sanctuaries/' What 
reverence for God's word is incul- 
cated in homes where there is no 
family prayer, or for God's provi- 
dential oversight at tables where 
no blessing is asked or thanks 
rendered? How shall a house- 

213 



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hold learn to revere the Lord, 
when evidently money and fashion 
and ambition and display and 
pleasure are objects of worship 
rather than the Heavenly Father? 

All foolish jesting which makes 
light of religion, all sneering at 
piety, all taking of God's name 
and attributes in vain, militate 
against reverence in character. I 
cannot protest too strongly against 
any use of the Bible which is not 
thoughtful and devotional. To 
take the words of scripture to cap 
a pun or solve a conundrum 
seems to me blasphemous. 

Another point on which we 
may profitably dwell is demeanor 
in God's house. When the church 
is made a place where friends 
whisper and talk before service. 



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IReverence* 



where they carry on bits of chat 
at intervals during its progress, 
where they look over hymn-books 
or the church programs during 
a sermon that tires them, or stare 
about during a prayer, good man- 
ners are violated, and reverence 
is hopelessly at fault. Persons 
who assume their outdoor wraps 
during doxology or benediction 
are anything but reverential; 
those who shut their psalters and 
hymn-books with emphasis and 
dash them back into the rack with 
the rattle of musketry, manifest 
ignorance of propriety, and those 
who rush from a church the in- 
stant of dismissal, as if fleeing 
from a pestilence, are equally 
wanting in the elements of good 
behavior. Reverence for God^s 
215 



T-^^mtAii 



XTbe 5osf ul %itc. 




house is as essential a matter of 
right Christian conduct as rever- 
ence for God's word. Let none 
lay a profane finger on the ark 
of the Lord. 

In our closets, too, we may cul- 
tivate reverence. Let us reflect 
on the way we pray. How often 
do we hurry into the Divine 
presence, hasten through our self- 
ish catalogue, and say ^^Amen^' 
with a sense of reUef. I can 
remember my father sitting for 
five minutes with the Book in his 
hand, ^^ composing his mind,'^ 
before beginning family worship, 
and I cannot think that in his 
private devotions he ever fell into 
unseemly haste. 

We have caught the temper of 
the period — a temper of unrest, of 
216 



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fever, of frantic endeavor to be 
first, and to get on. Automobiles 
rim over little children and infirm 
old people, crushing them under 
their Juggernaut wheels ; trains 
wait for no man's leisure; elec- 
tricity belts the globe — yet still 
the stars keep on their everlasting 
courses and the God of nature 
holds the winds in his fist, and in 
the heaven above us abides the 
serenity of eternity, where time 
shall be no more. 

When we stand before the great 
white throne, when we bow at 
Jesus' feet, shall we not be rever- 
ent then? O friends, let us be 
reverent now. In wonder, and 
adoration, and awe let us praise 
the King, whose constant care is 
over us, whose everlasting arms 
217 



'^rrir' 



xrbe 5oBful Xife. 





are beneath us, whose love is our 
dweUing place. Let us be reverent 
in the presence of our Father in 
heaven. 

Browning, in one of his most 
excellent lyrics, speaks of com- 
mencing every day's work with 
bent head and beseeching hands'^ 
that so upon it might descend the 
blessing from above. Is there 
not here for our every common 
day and little task an example 
by which we might profit? 




Talks Between Times. 

By MARGARET E. SANGSTER. 

x2mo, 151 pages, Cloth. 75 Cents, Postpaid. 



TRIlbat XeaDing papcre Sai^ ot Ht, 

N. Y. OBSERVER.— Beautiful and helpful talks from a gifted 
and beloved writer upon subjects that are of the highest concern to 
the best interest of the home and of a faithful Christian life. 

C. E. WORLD. — Quiet heart to heart talks on homelike 
theories — a serene faith is shot through them all, and they are 
all buoyant with good cheer. 

OUTLOOK. — They breathe loving sympathy, practical wisdom, 
and religion both sweet and rational. 

CHRISTLA.N INTELLIGENCER.— A book by Mrs. Sangster is 
always worth reading and possessing, and when so dainty and 
attractive in dress as this, with its beautiful binding and typography, 
with each page set in an artistic border, it becomes doubly valuable. 

LUTHERAN OBSERVER.— Full of good counsel, spirit, stimu- 
lus and inspiration to a life of faith. 

NATIONAL ADVOCATE. — Just the book to put into the hands 
of a young person. 

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.— Sensible and helpful talks full of 
a beautiful religious spirit. 

ADVOCATE AND GUARDIAN.— Written in Mrs. Sangster's 
best vein; practical, uplifting and refining: sweet and beautiful. 

RELIGIOUS TELESCOPE.— The name of the gifted author of 
this beautiful voltime is a guarantee of its excellence. 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

NEW YORK. 



APR 7 1903 



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Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

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